The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands’ gambling regulator, has issued a €1.2 million fine to Techno Offshore Limited for unlawfully offering online gambling services to Dutch players without a valid licence.
This isn’t a snap decision though, with a detailed investigation taking place which uncovered multiple violations across the operator’s platforms, nolimitbet.com and simplecasino.com.
Despite lacking the required licence to operate in the Dutch market, the sites were found to be accessible to users in the Netherlands and offered no safeguards to prevent underage or problem gambling.
Autoplay, cryptocurrency & no age checks
What KSA investigators discovered is that Dutch players could easily register using domestic phone numbers and addresses, even making deposits with Dutch bank accounts.
The websites, which claimed to be licensed under the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, did not implement any form of geolocation or country restrictions.
What was quite worrying is that the sites offered autoplay and turboplay features which are widely criticised for encouraging excessive gambling.
Further breaches included the lack of age verification checks and the acceptance of cryptocurrency, both of which fall short of the consumer protection standards required under Dutch law.
The regulator noted that promotional materials and even customer service communication were partly conducted in Dutch, showcasing that Techno Offshore were in fact targeting users in the country.
Escalating fines
The KSA initially issued a warning and a conditional penalty of €280,000 per week, with a €840,000 cap, in July 2024. However, by early 2025, both sites were still accessible.
As a result, the regulator imposed a base fine of €600,000, along with an additional penalty equivalent to 10% of the operator’s revenue, bringing the total sanction to €1.2 million.
According to the KSA, the base fine included specific penalties for violations such as charging inactivity fees, accepting crypto payments, allowing autoplay, and not conducting proper age verification.
Players must be protected
KSA chairman Michel Groothuizen stressed the importance of consumer protection, noting that illegal operators often fail to implement even the most basic safeguards.
“Licensed providers in the Netherlands must adhere to strict rules to protect players from gambling addiction,” noted Groothuizen. “With illegal providers, we often see that no account is taken of the prevention of risky gaming behaviour, for example by not using age verification, enabling payments with crypto, or a lack of gaming limits.
Ongoing enforcement
Techno Offshore does have six weeks to formally contest the fine but the KSA said the operator was given a chance to respond and ultimately, failed to provide any defense before the aforementioned penalty was imposed, so it is unlikely there will be any more communication.
This case isn’t an outlier though with the KSA also removing around 20 illegal gambling apps from online storefronts in 2025 alone — many of which mimicked licensed brands to mislead consumers.
We have no doubt that the KSA will continue to crack down on similar cases like this and could receive penalties akin to that of what Techno Offshore has received here.
