KSA Fines Bingoal $380,000 for Responsible Gambling Failures

Cruks is the Dutch self-exclusion program which is designed to protect consumers from excessive gambling habits and is often a first step in the recovery of players who have been spending too much on gambling products. The Netherlands, as a whole, has taken a number of measures over the past months to ensure that vulnerable consumers are protected.

Nothing Eludes the Dutch Gambling Authority

However, Bingoal has not met consumer protection standards, the regulator argues in its latest penalty, as the brand did not consult with Cruks when registering new players and therefore risked endangering players.

The failures in question, though, only have to do with a specific period in June and were an isolated event. During that month, Bingoal allowed consumers to register their iGaming accounts with the brand’s website, but no checks were run by Cruks to ensure that the people registering are not in fact self-excluded or vulnerable gamblers.

The country’s laws mandate that any new registration must be run by Cruks as a reference to ensure that players are offered the best and safest gambling options on the market. All operators hold a public key infrastructure (PKI) certificate which they use to ensure that no such problems occurred.

Bingoal was faced with a difficult choice at the time, as its PKI had expired, but the brand decided to register new players instead of turning them away. Therefore, the required checks were not always possible. Bingoal wasted no time and managed to issue a new certificate within three days. Despite the company’s swift reaction, the regulator argued that the offense should not have occurred in the first place.

Not Making the Right Call Has Consequences

“Bingoal should not have done that,” the regulator said in a statement. The law clearly states that for any player to access high-risk products, they would need to first be run through the Cruks register and not allowed on the gambling site if they are in fact part of that self-exclusion list. Cruks plays a crucial role in ensuring that consumers in the country are protected, the regulator insisted.

The KSA has been keeping a busy schedule, issuing a similar penalty to JOI Gaming in January. The regulator also targeted Shark77 with a fine worth $1 million, arguing that the operator had breached gambling laws in the country and, in fact, operated as an illegal offshore website. The regulator has been seeking to actively crack down on illegal gambling in the Netherlands in an ongoing attempt to boost consumer safety.