The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has dismantled several illegal poker tournaments during the autumn 2024. Tens of thousands of euros in cash were found. The Authority also recently imposed a penalty payment order of up to €110,000 on an organiser of poker without a license.

Illegal poker tournaments are often part of undermining crime, where criminals use legal businesses (such as catering establishments) or citizens for criminal activities. In addition, poker players are at risk of gambling addiction, especially when playing in an uncontrolled environment with high stakes.

The KSA combats illegal gambling, including illegal poker. In the last quarter of 2024, KSA inspectors dismantled illegal poker tournaments in six operations, often in collaboration with the police and municipalities, in Amsterdam, Asten, The Hague, Rotterdam and Tilburg. Large amounts of cash were often found at the locations in question; in one case even 40,000 euros. In one of the operations, the catering establishment in question was permanently closed by order of the municipality.

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Organising poker tournaments on location where money can be won is only allowed by one party in the Netherlands. Since 1975, that has been Holland Casino. Outside of that, tournaments for prizes or bonuses (money or something that can be exchanged for money) are prohibited, unless in a closed circle (an existing group of people who know each other such as a family, relatives, nursing home, a company or members of an association) is being played.

Vixio is the only provider in the industry with this unique, centralised information security for technical compliance

Vixio, a leading provider of regulatory intelligence solutions, is proud to announce that it has expanded its groundbreaking Technical Compliance Tool to cover over 80 different information security requirements in two dozen leading regulated jurisdictions worldwide.

The Technical Compliance Tool is the first of its kind to offer a one-stop solution for navigating technical requirements for gambling operators and suppliers and the addition of information security requirements now allows users to compare infosec standards globally to help maintain compliance and prepare for expansion to additional jurisdictions.

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“We are delighted with the uptake in our powerful Technical Compliance Tool since it was launched at an industry event in London in September,” explains James Kilsby, Chief Analyst, Vixio. “Feedback from clients has reaffirmed our view that technical compliance is a diverse and increasingly challenging area within the online gambling industry. We are very proud to expand our product to support operators and suppliers as they position themselves to meet critical infosec compliance requirements on a multi-jurisdictional basis.” 

The expansion to include information security compliance takes it a step further at a critical time; amid heightened concerns about cybersecurity, gambling regulators are increasingly setting highly detailed requirements designed to ensure the technical security of online gaming platforms and the third-party systems that are integrated with them.

“For operators and suppliers alike, not only is fully understanding these often diverging information security requirements across multiple jurisdictions fundamental from a compliance perspective, it is also a critical part of evaluating new market entry due to the upfront and ongoing costs involved in meeting specific rules related to testing, assessments, audits and certification,” explains Roger Cowin, Technical Compliance Specialist, Vixio. 

Using the same intuitive functionality and thorough methodology applied to the Technical Compliance Tool’s coverage for online casino games, the expanded tool pulls in information from nearly forty thousand data points, allowing users to:

• Compare infosec requirements across multiple regulated markets to evaluate where common standards are in place, and where there are key divergences that operators and suppliers will need to address.
• Map out a multijurisdictional for penetration and vulnerability assessments, audits, security testing and certifications, providing full visibility into the infosec-related costs of entering new markets.
• Understand which global standards (ISO, PCI-DSS, NIST etc) serve as the bedrock for infosec requirements in specific jurisdictions.
• Evaluate infosec rules that apply to integrations between online gaming platforms and various third-party service providers.
• Efficiently analyse key requirements for system and data security, backup and recovery, remote access, change management and more.

Available jurisdictions for information security requirements in the Technical Compliance Tool include the following jurisdictions: Alderney, Brazil, Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires City, Colombia, Connecticut, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Isle of Man, Italy, Malta, Michigan, Netherlands, New Jersey, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

The company Olympic Casino Group Baltija (OCGB) did not take sufficient steps to identify the origin of Šarūnas Stepukonis’ losing funds, and the monitoring of his financial transactions was only formal and ineffective. Such violations were identified by the Gaming Supervisory Authority, which conducted an inspection of OCGB’s activities in Lithuania. The company was fined almost 8.4 million euros.

The Gaming Supervisory Authority (LPT) investigated the actions taken by OCGB in response to Š. Stepukonis’ transactions on the company’s gaming website from December 2016 to the end of June 2021. The law obliges gaming operators to ensure that customer funds are not obtained from criminal activities or through participation in such activities. It is also mandatory to verify the origin of the funds. LPT found that the measures applied by OCGB were poor and insufficient, and the monitoring of Š. Stepukonis’ transactions was formal.

Gambling organizers must report suspicious transactions to the FNTT. Š. Stepukonis’ transactions had obvious signs that should have raised suspicions for the gambling organizer. However, the FNTT was not informed about this.

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During the inspection, evidence was also collected that Š. Stepukonis’ gambling was irresponsible. The gambling company should have noticed this, especially since the client was assigned a personal manager who saw all of his transactions.

“Instead of finding out whether Š. Stepukonis had a gambling problem or informing the supervisory authority, Olympic Casino encouraged him to gamble even more. An individual incentive package was prepared for him. A total of 1.3 million euros was allocated for this. This “bonus” could only be spent on gambling. Other incentives were also allocated,” – comments on the results of the inspection by LPT Director Virginijus Daukšys.

Since mid-2021, gambling companies in Lithuania have no longer been allowed to offer incentives to their customers that they would later lose. Just before this tightening came into effect, Š. Stepukonis’ virtual gambling was moved from Lithuania to Estonia, where it was still allowed to encourage gamblers.

In this way, it was possible not only to maintain incentives for gambling, but also to avoid supervision by the LPT. If an ordinary gambler from Lithuania tried to go and register on the Estonian Olympic Casino website, he would be redirected to the Lithuanian website. However, in the case of Š. Stepukonis, the redirection was not carried out. These circumstances are part of the pre-trial investigation.

During the inspection, a total of five violations of the provisions of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism and the Law on Gambling were identified.

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The law allows for a fine of up to twice the amount of damage caused. The damage was determined to be 6.4 million euros – the amount Š. Stepukonis lost at the Olympic Casino in Lithuania. When calculating the fine, an aggravating circumstance was taken into account – the company did not cooperate during the inspection.

According to V. Daukšys, after this story came to light, steps were taken to prevent similar cases from recurring. The most important change is the law, proposed by the LPT, which obliges gambling companies to take action upon noticing irresponsible gambling and to provide information about it to the LPT.

“Until now, there was no such obligation. Therefore, the LPT did not have information that would allow it to take preventive actions in advance,” says V. Daukšys.

The new Gambling Law will come into force in November this year. Its aim is to reduce the accessibility, attractiveness and potential harm to personal health of gambling.

LPT also reviewed its procedures, adjusted internal procedures, allowing for more frequent scheduled inspections of the activities of gambling companies. In addition, the Ministry of Finance conducted an audit of LPT’s activities. No significant operational deficiencies were identified during the audit. LPT took into account the audit recommendations and allocated more human resources to money laundering prevention functions.

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Source: Gambling Supervisory Authority under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania