Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the gambling authority of the Netherlands, has imposed a €3 million penalty on BetEnt NV, the operating company of BetCity.nl.
The penalty relates to BetCity.nl’s failure to comply with the rules of the Netherlands Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prevention Act (Wwft).
A subsidiary of Entain Plc, BetEnt was warned by KSA of shortcomings in AML compliance in September 2022, following concerns outlined by ‘customer surveys’.
Following its warning, KSA detailed that it had instructed BetEnt on how to properly conduct AML investigations and report unusual transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in a timely manner.
KSA continued to monitor the BetCity activities to ensure BetEnt was adhering to the standards of the Prevention Act. KSA judged that BetEnt did not meet the requirements for a large part of the customer surveys assessed between December 2022 and May 2023.
The penalty notice detailed that many customer interventions were started late, after large amounts of funds had already been gambled away. Further concerns were reported on BetEnt’s casual approach to requesting source-of-fund information from customers.
KSA determined: “In many cases, BetEnt has failed to report unusual transactions to the FIU. The KSA takes these facts seriously regarding BetEnt and is therefore now imposing a fine of €3 million.”
Dutch market incumbents were reminded that the KOA of the Netherlands online gambling marketplace abides by the rules of the Wwft, overseen by the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
Rules dictate that operators licensed by the KOA must supervise customers’ transactions and report unusual transactions to the FIU for investigation.
KSA Chairman, René Jansen, commented: “In May last year, the KSA issued a broad warning to licensed providers that they had to quickly get their Wwft affairs in order. We then indicated that if research shows that providers are underperforming in the field of the Wwft, sanctions will be imposed. We have now moved beyond the start-up phase of the market, which means that there are no longer any excuses for certain shortcomings.”
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