The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch gambling authority, was entitled to reject a licence application from a Maltese operator after learning that one of its former shareholders was suspected of being involved in a high-profile murder, a court in the Hague has ruled.
The unnamed operator had originally applied for a licence to enter the Dutch market in 2023, only for the KSA to rule that the company fell short when it came to the country’s integrity test. The operator reacted by taking the regulator to court in a bid to overturn the decision, but a judge has now ruled in favour of the KSA.
Key to the shortcomings in the operator’s application was the lack of information supplied about a specific former shareholder in the company.
The regulator came to the conclusion that there was insufficient information in the company’s statements and that it had also made false reports, which caused it to reject the application. The Court found that the basis for reaching that decision was ju..