The Netherlands gaming regulator has imposed a €300k penalty on a Dutch-facing subsidiary of online gambling operator Betsson AB for accepting local customers without local approval.

On Friday, the Netherlands’ Kansspelautoreit (KSA) regulatory body announced that it had imposed a €300k penalty on the Stockholm-listed Betsson’s Malta-based subsidiary Corona, which operates the Dutch-facing Oranje and Kroon online casino brands, for accepting action from Dutch punters without the KSA’s say-so.

The KSA’s report on its investigation reveals that the offending activity took place between May 31 and August 8, 2017. The KSA received complaints regarding the sites prior to this period, but the report notes that the probe was in part a response to “the publicity that Betsson itself had sought following the tightening of enforcement regarding games of chance online without a license on 1 June 2017.”

This ‘publicity’ apparently refers to the complaint Betsson filed with the European Commission regarding the KSA’s announcement of a stiffer range of penalties for a wider variety of perceived violations of existing Dutch gambling law. Betsson has pursued multiple avenues of legal recourse against the restrictive Dutch law, albeit with little success.