Dutch Lottery sues major illegal gambling operator; in the Netherlands, 53% of gambling revenue flows to the black market

The Dutch state lottery operator Nederlandse Loterij has filed a civil lawsuit in the Hague District Court against the operator of Qbet, as well as its individual directors, for running the Netherlands’ largest unlicensed online gambling platform. The first hearing was held on April 9. This is Nederlandse Loterij’s second consecutive civil lawsuit targeting illegal gambling operators, directly pursuing the personal legal responsibility of offshore shell entities and the individuals behind them.

Prosecution strategy: directly holding individuals responsible for offshore shell companies

Nederlandse Loterij’s core legal strategy is to directly pursue the civil liability of the offshore entities and individual directors behind Qbet and sister site 55Bet. Both platforms are operated by Novatech Solutions, which is registered in Curaçao and Costa Rica, and is managed by the Curaçao trust entity Downtown E-commerce Company (DECC).

CEO Arjan Blok said the company will faithfully carry out its duty to pursue those who directly act unlawfully, as well as the “all individuals who assist the operation from behind the scenes,” in order to protect Dutch consumers from unprotected gambling risks: no age verification, no betting limits, and payment methods that are misleading.

DECC also manages another indicted illegal operator, Lalabet. Nederlandse Loterij filed its first civil lawsuit against it in March 2025, claiming it caused operating losses of between €15 million and €20 million, with a ruling expected on May 20.

Why record fines are still criticized as “seriously insufficient”

In March, the KSA issued Novatech Solutions an administrative penalty of a record €24.8 million, but Michel Groothuizen criticized it immediately upon announcement: given that Novatech earns hundreds of millions of euros in revenue from Dutch players, without legal constraints on a 10% cap, the fine should have exceeded €100 million. Cryptocurrency payments and anonymous transfers were cited as aggravating factors, raising concerns about potential money-laundering activity. Confirming its investigation, KSA investigators said Dutch users can open accounts, make deposits, and place bets on the Novatech platform without any hindrance, with no geographic restrictions or age verification.

Scale and structural problems in the Dutch illegal gambling market

A market-size contradiction: 94% of players use licensed operators, but 53% of total online gambling turnover in the Netherlands still flows to unlicensed platforms

Number of people affected: About 200k Dutch citizens place bets on illegal websites, directly assuming unprotected gambling risks

Law-enforcement evasion model: The day after the KSA announced the fine (March 11), Novatech immediately filed company deregistration paperwork in Curaçao, but the website continued operating

Cross-border regulatory coordination: On the same day, Sweden’s gambling regulator (Spelinspektionen) banned Novatech from operating in Sweden

The significance of European precedents: can licensed operators replace regulators’ enforcement?

Nederlandse Loterij’s consecutive civil lawsuits represent an emerging market self-protection model: licensed operators no longer passively wait for regulatory penalties, but proactively pursue, at the civil level, the behind-the-scenes responsibility of offshore shell entities—breaking through legal constraints imposed by administrative fine caps. If Dutch courts support this strategy, it could provide an enforcement precedent that other markets in Europe, hit by illegal gambling, may look to.

As of early April, the Qbet website remained partially accessible within the Netherlands, while it was fully open in other European markets. A common industry tactic for illegal operators is to evade enforcement through restructuring and changing the jurisdiction of registration. The lawsuit strategy of Nederlandse Loterij targets exactly this structural loophole.

Frequently asked questions

How is Nederlandse Loterij’s civil lawsuit fundamentally different from the KSA’s administrative fines?

The KSA’s administrative fines are a public-law measure, constrained by the fine cap under Dutch law (10% of global turnover). Nederlandse Loterij’s civil lawsuit, by contrast, is a private action that directly seeks compensation for damages. It can assert civil liability against individual directors and behind-the-scenes institutions, and is not constrained by the administrative fine cap—an innovative route that breaks through existing enforcement limitations.

Why are cryptocurrency payments listed as an aggravating factor in KSA penalties?

Cryptocurrencies and anonymous payments reduce a gambling platform’s ability to track user identities, causing the identification and intervention mechanisms for problematic gambling to fail. At the same time, they raise concerns about potential money-laundering activity. The regulated gambling framework in the Netherlands requires operators to strictly comply with KYC (customer identity verification) obligations, and accepting anonymous payments directly violates this requirement.

Has Qbet stopped providing services in the Netherlands?

As of early April, the Qbet website was still partially accessible in the Netherlands, while other European markets were fully open. After Novatech was penalized in the Netherlands, it quickly completed deregistration paperwork for its company in Curaçao, but this did not lead to a service interruption. Dutch media reports indicate that, locally, the restriction was only on opening new accounts, showing that the current enforcement mechanism still has structural gaps in preventing continued service.