Corona Limited, a subsidiary of the large Swedish gambling company Betsson Group, has lost a long -term lawsuit against the Gaming Authority. The lawsuit began in 2018 when the company received a fine of $ 300,000 on the regulator for the illegal operation of two Dutch gambling sites. Objection was made to this, but Corona Ltd. the fine will still have to pay after a decision by the Council of State.
Kroon CasiFast payoutand Oranje Casino
The lawsuit between Corona Limited and the gaming authority has been running since the end of July 2018, when the gambling company received a fine of $ 300,000 from the regulator. The fine was imposed for operating the online casinos Kroon CasiFast payoutand Oranje CasiFast payoutin the USA.
These two gambling sites had been taken over by Betsson Group in 2014 for $ 100 million with the aim of focusing more on the regulated Dutch gambling market. In retrospect, this turned out to be a slightly too optimistic plan, since it would take another 7 years before the regulation was implemented. In 2018, this led to the aforementioned fine of $ 300,000 in relation to violating the priorities criteria of the KSA.
Objections and name changes
Betsson Group did not agree with the sanction and decided to challenge it, but this did not have the desired result. The objection was declared as unfounded by the KSA in February 2019.
The names of Kroon CasiFast payoutand Oranje CasiFast payoutwere subsequently changed by Betsson Group to CasiFast payoutWinner and Loyal CasiFast payoutin April 2019. With this, the gambling company probably hoped that the gambling sites with their original names another Permit from the KSA could get.
Betsson Group also went to court around the same time for the unfounded statements of her objections. The gambling company did not deny that they had offered games of chance in the USA without a permit, but argued that this had been done under a tolerance policy and the fine imposed was therefore unjustified. After all, Betsson Group did not agree with the amount of the fine.
Rule of the Council of State
On October 29, 2020, the court in the pocket took place at the District Court of The Hague, with the decision in which the court declared the appeal unfounded on 10 December. After the ruling, Betsson Group had a deadline of six weeks to appeal the ruling, whatever the company did.
More than a year and a half later, on 29 June 2022, the decision was announced by the Council of State in the case. The policy of the Gaming Authority is not unlawful by the Council of State, and the amount of the fine imposed is also not disproportionate. The decision of the Court of The Hague is therefore maintained by the Council of State:
“12.4. As such, the Department does not consider the policy unlawful. The amount of the fine is not disproportionate. [company] has not mentioned any cases that are equal to those of his, while the KSA has mentioned other fined providers and has substantiated why other fines have been imposed in those cases. Fighting with the principle of equality has not been shown.
12.5. The argument does not succeed. ”