The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) has fined Betent 3 million euros. Betent was fined for violating the Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (Prevention) Act (Wwft). Betent offers online gambling in the Netherlands under the Betcity brand.
According to the AML, gambling providers must, among other things, monitor their customers' transactions and report unusual transactions to the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). To do this, they must do their due diligence with customers. For example, they need to investigate who their customers are (identity verification), what transactions they carry out and what their risk profile is in relation to the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. This customer due diligence enables a gambling service provider to take timely measures or intervene to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Rene Jansen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gambling Authority said: “In May last year, the KSA issued a broad warning to licensing providers that they needed to quickly get their AML affairs in order. At the time, we indicated that if research showed that suppliers were falling short in anti-money laundering performance, sanctions would be imposed. We are now following up on this aspect. We are now truly out of the start-up phase of the market, and this also means that there are no more excuses for some things".
KSA has reviewed Betent's customer due diligence to determine whether it was carried out in compliance with WWFT requirements. In September 2022, the Gambling Authority gave Betent instructions on how to properly carry out these investigations and promptly report unusual transactions to the FIU. After this designation, the KSA investigated whether the AML was still violated. Between December 2022 and May 2023, Betent was found to have failed to meet the requirements for a majority of the assessed customer due diligence. For example, in many cases, investigations were launched late, after large sums of money had already been wagered, and Betent was negligent in requesting sources of income from customers. Furthermore, adequate actions were not always taken. In many cases, Betent did not report the unusual transactions to the FIU. Ksa heavily accuses Betent for these facts and this is why a fine of 3 million euros is now being imposed.
