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Dutch Regulator Collects €675,000 From CasinoScout Owners Over Illegal Casino Ads

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The Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, Ksa) has moved to collect €225,000 in penalty payments from each of the three companies behind affiliate site CasinoScout.nl, after the group failed to stop promoting unlicensed online casinos and failed to pay the penalties it had already incurred. The collection decisions, signed July 17, 2026 and published August 14, 2026, target SBM Holding Group Ltd., JEF Holdings Ltd. and Sun Block Media Labs 2.0 Ltd., bringing the combined amount the regulator is collecting to €675,000.

According to the collection order against SBM Holding Group, the company violated a penalty order the Ksa imposed on June 27, 2025 and has not paid the €225,000 that automatically accrued. The regulator is now collecting the debt. Parallel records for JEF Holdings and Sun Block Media Labs 2.0 show identical outcomes: each company’s penalty payments hit the same €225,000 cap, and each is now in collection.

The case centres on CasinoScout.nl, a casino comparison site that the Ksa found was running advertising and clickable links to online casinos with no Dutch licence. Under the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act, promoting participation in unlicensed gambling is itself illegal, separate from the ban on offering it. The regulator’s investigation found that at least one site CasinoScout linked to allowed players from the Netherlands to create an account, deposit money and play.

How a Legitimate Affiliate Became a Target

CasinoScout.nl was not always an illegal operation. The Ksa’s original penalty order against SBM Holding Group notes that until its sale on January 10, 2025, the site referred only to licensed casinos. After the sale to SBM Holding Group and JEF Holdings, with Sun Block Media Labs 2.0 holding the domain name, the site began promoting unlicensed operators.

The regulator documented a homepage headlined “Beste online casino’s van Nederland” displaying a top-10 list of unlicensed casinos, each with a “Speel mee” button linking directly to the gambling site. A separate page titled “Casino zonder vergunning” (casino without a licence) advertised the benefits of playing at unlicensed sites, including the absence of Cruks, the Dutch self-exclusion register, and the absence of play limits. The Ksa also found that unlicensed casinos were presented as holding Ksa licences, and that the site claimed membership in two industry associations, the Keurmerk Verantwoorde Affiliates and the Gambling Portal Webmasters Association, in what the regulator described as misleading information.

The Ksa contacted SIDN, the .nl domain registry, and CasinoScout.nl was temporarily taken offline in April 2025. It returned after the domain holder promised to comply with Dutch law, but the regulator found the promotion of illegal sites continued, both on CasinoScout.nl and on a second site, besteonlinecasinonederland.com, to which CasinoScout redirected.

By the Numbers

  • €75,000: the weekly penalty payment each company faced for continued violations
  • €225,000: the maximum penalty payment per company, and the amount each ultimately forfeited
  • €675,000: the combined total the Ksa is now collecting from the three companies
  • 3: the number of follow-up inspections, on July 24, August 7 and August 14, 2025, at which the violation was still ongoing
  • 6 weeks: the statutory payment window each company missed before the regulator moved to collect

The Penalty Payment Mechanism

The instrument the Ksa used is a last onder dwangsom, an order subject to incremental penalty payments. Unlike a fine, which punishes a past violation, a dwangsom is designed to force compliance: the company is ordered to stop the illegal activity, and a set amount accrues for each period it fails to do so. SBM Holding Group was given two weeks from its June 27, 2025 order to end all advertising and linking to unlicensed gambling sites, across every website it owned; JEF Holdings and Sun Block Media Labs 2.0 were subject to parallel penalty orders of May 22 and June 5, 2025. After that grace period, €75,000 accrued per week or part-week of continued violation, capped at €225,000.

Once a penalty payment has accrued, Dutch administrative law gives the company six weeks to pay. If it does not, the regulator can decide to collect the debt formally, which is what the July 17, 2026 decisions do. The Ksa’s collection order cites the position of the Council of State, the highest Dutch administrative court, that the interest of collecting an accrued penalty carries heavy weight, and that collection can only be waived in special circumstances. The regulator found none here.

Objections Rejected, Collection Contested

All three companies fought the orders. SBM Holding Group argued it was wrongly designated as the violator, that CasinoScout.nl had been inactive since June 20, 2025, that the penalty was disproportionate, and that as an affiliate it had no control over the sites it linked to. In a detailed ruling on May 12, 2026, the Ksa rejected every ground. It held that as owners of the website, SBM and JEF Holdings each had the power to remove the illegal advertising, and noted that during an August 4, 2025 meeting SBM’s representative had acknowledged the site had been bought “for a lot of money.”

The regulator was particularly dismissive of the argument that the penalty was too high. Because SBM did not comply with the order and continued violating the promotion ban through July and August 2025, the Ksa concluded the penalty had, if anything, been too low. Sun Block Media Labs 2.0’s objection was declared inadmissible, according to the company’s page on the regulator’s site.

The dispute is not over. Both the collection decisions and the decisions to publish them have themselves been appealed, the Ksa’s records show. Filing an objection does not suspend the obligation to pay. The companies can seek a preliminary injunction from an administrative court, but the collection stands unless a judge intervenes.

What Happens Next

SBM Holding Group had six weeks from July 17, 2026 to transfer the €225,000 to the Ksa, a deadline that falls at the end of August 2026. The same window applies to JEF Holdings and Sun Block Media Labs 2.0. Each company can file an objection against the collection decision with the Ksa within six weeks of the decision, and can ask an administrative court for a preliminary injunction while that objection is pending.

The case is one of several enforcement actions the Ksa has published against unlicensed gambling and its promoters this year, including a €420,000 collection against the operator behind Polymarket and an €840,000 collection against Chestoption Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada. The regulator has made clear it treats affiliates and other intermediaries as a critical pressure point: without advertising, payment processing and internet traffic, it argues, illegal operators cannot reach Dutch players.

Elena Markov is an AI-generated analyst at Gaming.net, tracking regulatory developments, licensing decisions, and enforcement actions in major gambling jurisdictions worldwide. Her reporting centers on specific policy changes, fines, auditor findings, and legal interpretations affecting licensed operators.

Elena’s articles parse regulatory documents and enforcement notices from bodies such as the UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority, and state regulators, explaining how these moves influence market access, operator obligations, and compliance costs. She foregrounds named regulators, actual rulings, timelines, and documented outcomes.
Articles authored by Elena Markov are AI-generated and reviewed by Gaming.net’s editorial team to ensure accuracy, clarity, and compliance-aware coverage of gambling regulation.