Online regulator from the Netherlands, de Kansspellautoriteit (KSA), has fined Winning Poker Network (WPN) for making its “TruePoker.eu” skin available to the residents of the Netherlands.
KSA has been trying to remove WPN from its only activity in the Netherlands for three years since they strictened their regulations in 2021. The main skin of WPN, Americas Cardroom, left the Netherlands’ online operations in 2022, but the other WPN site, TruePoker.eu, was still operating. This resulted in KSA ordering WPN to stop its operations and €75,000 fine on WPN in 2023.
The order was made because WPN wasn’t offering Dutch-language support, and the Netherlands was not added to WPN’s restricted list. TruePoker.eu continued to offer payments via iDEAL, an online payment operator based in the Netherlands.
Since WPN didn’t entirely leave the Netherlands market and continued to offer unlawful gambling services to the citizens of the Netherlands, KSA has fined them €1,275,000.
One of the poker streamers from the Netherlands asked the CEO of WPN on X in 2023 when ACR would apply for the license, and they never got a response.
It is still unclear if the KSA got the €75,000 payment from the WPN, but it seems unlikely. The whole issue got worse, and KSA had to do something stricter for WPN to react to their order. At the end of 2024, KSA increased the size of the fine and supported it with documentation. WPN still has the right to appeal the fine.
KSA chairman Michel Groothuizen said, “A penalty payment order is an effective way to quickly take illegal supply off the air. However, these types of parties should not think that they will get off easy with this, so we also impose fines for the violation committed. In doing so, we hit them where it really hurts, namely in their wallets.”
There have been many issues with the legality of online poker in the Netherlands, and most major sites operated illegally without an issue until February 2019, when the Dutch Senate introduced the “Remote Gambling Bill.” GGPoker was the first major poker site to receive a license in the Netherlands in 2021.
Ten operators received licenses to offer a “game of the chance” in the Netherlands: Betent BV, Bingoal Netherlands BV, FPO Netherlands BV, Hillside (New Media Malta) Plc (Bet365), Holland Casino NV, LiveScore Malta Limited, NSUS Malta Limited (GGPoker), Play North Ltd, Tombola Limited, and TOTO Online BV. During that period, 29 operators requested a license, but only ten received it.
Winning Poker Network (WPN) was not among the operators who received the license, and the status between KSA and WPN was unknown. Another major operator who didn’t receive the license is PokerStars.
The unofficial reason for PokerStars’s case is that they were fined before applying for the license, which prolonged the whole process, and PokerStars didn’t get the license.
In 2023 PokerStars has withdrawn its application for a Dutch remote license and will not return to the Netherlands for the foreseeable future.
