European Gaming Lawyer magazine Spring 2014 | Page 13

the “black market” and therefore the notified
bill notes that life for illegal operators should
be made as difficult as possible. However, the
notified bill acknowledges that administrative
sanctions are not effective towards foreign
based entities.
Therefore, additional measures are
introduced such as the possibility for
the regulator to participate in the game
anonymously in order to retrieve the
identity of the locally unlicensed operator.
Furthermore, the Gaming Authority could
issue binding instructions to internet service
providers (ISPs) and payment service
providers (PSPs) with the request to stop
doing business with locally unlicensed
operators. The Gaming Authority will
maintain and distribute a black list of
operators for such purposes. Following
criticism from organisations representing
ISPs, as put forward in their consultation
submission, the notified bill made these
binding instructions for ISPs conditional
upon prior approval by a court magistrate
(“rechter-commisaris”). The notified bill
also clarified that binding instructions will
only be used if and when there are no less
onerous means available to the achieve the
aim (proportionality and suitability-test).
Next steps and legislative timetable
We expect that – ceter