The Dutch Gambling Authority, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has fined operator Sarah Eternal SRL €900,000 ($976,424 / £756,027) for “illegally offering” gambling services to Dutch players via its website “casinovsky”.
According to the KSA, the hefty fine was issued because Sarah Eternal SRL has failed to take measures to prevent Dutch players from using the gambling services of “casinovsky”.
Casinovsky is a gaming platform that doesn’t hold a Dutch gambling license. Moreover, this is not the first time that casinovsky was hit with a hefty fine of €280,000 back in March 2024, after the KSA found that Dutch players could access the website via IP addresses from the Netherlands.
Additionally, KSA investigators found that Dutch players could make deposits via credit cards connected to Dutch banks and, more alarmingly, that the area code required for registration was automatically filled with the Netherlands 31+.
Furthermore, the Dutch Gambling Authority also found that the Netherlands is not included in the list of forbidden countries in casinovsky’s terms of service, which the KSA considers an encouragement for players to use their services.
Michel Groothuzien, Chaiperson at the Kansspelautoriteit, said in an official statement that the Dutch gambling is a place where gambling should be conducted in a safe and transparent manner.
With these types of illegal providers, we often see that no account is taken of the prevention of risky gaming behaviour. For example, there was no age verification, which also allows minors to play, and the possibility was offered to gamble with cryptocurrency. As KSA, we take tough action against these types of parties.
Sarah Eternal SRL, which is based in Costa Rica, has six weeks to either appeal the decision or pay the €900,000 fine from the date of issuing the fine.
In related news, in February 2025, Groothuizen voiced his concern over raising the online gambling age in the Netherlands to 21, stating that by enforcing this law, younger players are more at risk of playing at black market casinos with substantially less transparency and safety.
