The highest administrative court in the Netherlands has ruled in favor of national gaming regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) in a case concerning the use of text-based promotions for online games of chance.
KSA had argued that using promotional articles to publicize online games, which are currently prohibited in the country, was a form of advertising and should be banned.
The Dutch Council of State agreed, ruling that promotional texts fall can be categorized as advertising and are not allowed under current laws. The decision supports an earlier ruling made by the District Court of the Hague in February 2019, reported iGamingBusiness.com.
The original case, in 2017, involved fines issued by KSA to Content Publishing Ltd., a subsidiary of Betsson, after the regulator said the operator had published promotional articles for online gambling on various websites.
According to the KSA, visitors to Content Publishing websites were able to click through to sites where illegal games of chance could be played. Content Publishing argued in the Hague that the KSA’s definition of promotion in the Gambling Act was too broad and that its articles constituted editorial information, rather than advertisements.
The court disagreed, ruling that “the primary objective” of the information was to “forward potential players to providers of online casino games” and that the KSA rightly regarded this as promoting illegal gambling.
