The Dutch gambling regulator – Kansspelautoriteit – issued on Tuesday a cease and desist order to performance marketing company Catena Media, after the latter had been found out to have advertised different iGaming brands in a manner that had violated the Netherlands’ gaming regulations.
The Malta-located company was required to stop its promotional activities in the country and to refrain from such activities in future. The Netherlands Gaming Authority also informed Catena Media that it would be imposed a fine of up to €21,000, if it fails to comply with the recently issued order.
According to Kansspelautoriteit’s order, Catena Media had previously targeted Dutch players by promoting the iGaming offering of different operators on a number of websites, with some of those being pellenoverzicht.com, gokoverzicht.com, and netentcasino.nl. Following the order’s publication, the websites cannot be reached from within the Netherlands.
Headquartered in Sliema, Malta, Catena Media is a lead generation company that through its growing network of affiliate websites, promotes online gambling services to customers from around the world. Last year, the company made the headlines by acquiring popular iGaming portal AskGamblers for the total amount of €15 million.
The announcement about Catena Media being scolded by the Netherlands Gaming Authority comes shortly after the regulator introduced a new set of rules that significantly limited the provision of online gambling services in the country.
Generally speaking, the unauthorized provision of offering of this type is prohibited in the Netherlands, but international iGaming operators have been targeting Dutch players in a gray zone for years. However, Kansspelautoriteit’s new regulations hampered their Dutch-facing operations significantly.
Under the newly-introduced rules, iGaming operators and even their affiliates are not allowed to target local players by using typically Dutch symbols, such as tulips and windmills. In addition, .nl affiliate websites are prohibited from directing Dutch players to .com iGaming websites. Operators that have failed to block traffic from the country are also considered to be violating its gambling regulations and could face scolding from Kansspelautoriteit.
The Netherlands has started a process for the regulation of its online gambling market, although lawmakers have not made any significant progress since last summer, when an iGaming bill was voted in favor of by the Dutch Lower House. It is now up to the Senate to move forward the legislative piece, but many believe that it would take some more time before this happens.
According to Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice officials, who participated in this year’s edition of the Gaming in Holland Conference, it will not be before July 2018 that the country will regulate its market and open it for licensed iGaming operations.
