Dutch KSA and Facebook Join Forces to Fight Illegal Lotteries

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch gambling regulator has teamed up with Facebook, the world’s largest social media platform to wage war against illegal online lottery organizations that are becoming increasingly notorious in the Netherlands. The illegal online activity in question is commonly known as ‘dipping’ or dip-lotteries, where unlicensed online lotto competitions are exclusively organized and promoted via the Facebook social media platform.

In such unlicensed lottery competitions, participants involved usually enter into prize draws for different forms of rewards including cash, and the entry fees paid by the players are directly transferred to operators based in the country and offshore.

Described its partnership with Facebook as the quickest and most effective way to curb violations of the nation’s Gambling Act, the KSA published a statement on its official website to shed more light about how lotteries should be run; 

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“Games of chance, such as lotteries, where participation must be paid for, may only be offered if a license has been granted. It is not possible to obtain a permit if there is a commercial objective; the law says that at least 40% of the proceeds should go to charity.”

How is KSA and Facebook Fighting the Dip Lotteries?

Over the past couple of months, the Dutch gaming authority has conducted over a dozen investigations of illegal lotteries and subsequently sent over the report findings to Facebook. On its part, the social media platform has taken action by removing the groups from the platform, per its rules and guidelines.

The key driver of the success of this partnership between Facebook and KSA is effective communication. So, the Dutch gaming ombudsman flags any incidents of the illegal dip lotteries running on the social media site and sends the report to Facebook, and from there, Facebook kicks the group out because it doesn’t want to facilitate any form of illegal activities.

Facebook Has Always Been at the Forefront of Combating Illegal Gaming Activities

This is not the first time that Facebook has joined forces with gambling authorities of different jurisdictions to curb illegal gaming practices. Earlier in June this year, the social media bigwig struck down 36 illegal gambling sites that were promoting their unregulated services to the Norwegian market. Some of the online gambling platforms that were ejected from Facebook for illegal practices include Kommunepoker, Pokio, and Coolbet.

Fast forward to the end of September, Facebook partnered with the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) to boost safer advertising for the gambling industry for ads that are promoted on its platform. Under this arrangement, Facebook gave more power to the user so that they can reduce exposure to gambling-related content on the social platform via tweaking their account settings.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands is preparing for the debut of a regulated online gambling market in September 2021 after facing different obstacles that led to the adjustment of the original launch date. The launch was initially to take place in July this year before it was pushed forward by over one year as the KSA continues to streamline its Remote Gambling Act.