Nederlandse Loterij Steps Up Offshore Gambling Fight With Skyhills Case

The Dutch national lottery, Nederlandse Loterij, has launched legal action against gambling site Skyhills, its third such case as Dutch operators increase pressure on the offshore market.

The state-owned lottery ordered Skyhills’ operators and directors to stop targeting Dutch players. Nederlandse Loterij CEO Arjan Blok said Skyhills had used advertising, including on TikTok, to target Dutch consumers.

“Skyhills explicitly targets Dutch players and especially young people with deceptive advertising,” Blok said. “They can gamble there completely unprotected, with all the associated risks.”

After issuing a cease-and-desist letter, Nederlandse Loterij said that Skyhills had been made inaccessible in the Netherlands.

Lalabet Appeal Adds to Legal Campaign

Nederlandse Loterij previously launched proceedings against two other offshore operators, Lalabet and Qbet. The Qbet case is expected to begin later this year.

In June, a Dutch court ruled largely in Nederlandse Loterij’s favor against Lalabet. It found that the site’s operators and directors had acted unlawfully and must stop targeting players in the Netherlands.

The defendants were also ordered to disclose information about Lalabet’s ownership and corporate structure.

However, while the court also found that trust administrators and local representatives who facilitate illegal gambling sites can also be held liable, it said it found insufficient evidence that the Curaçao trust firm DECC knew it was providing services to a company illegally targeting the Dutch market. Nederlandse Loterij is appealing the court’s decision.

It also called for tougher action from the Dutch government ahead of a parliamentary gambling debate on Thursday (September 3).

It supported proposals to give the Dutch regulator Kansspelautoriteit greater powers against illegal operators. However, Blok said authorities should also consider criminal enforcement and close cooperation with service and technology providers.

“We must fight illegal gambling sites where players are completely unprotected together. Banks, payment providers, and hosting services also have a responsibility in this,” said Blok.

Nederlandse Loterij also warned against a complete advertising ban for licensed online gambling operators. A ban on untargeted gambling adverts has been in place since 2023. 

It argued that restricting the legal market further could make offshore operators more attractive and harder for consumers to distinguish.

VNLOK Finds Illegal Ads Dominate Meta Platforms

Meanwhile, separate research from Dutch online gambling association VNLOK found that unlicensed operators accounted for the vast majority of gambling advertising reaching Dutch users on Facebook and Instagram.

VNLOK analyzed 65,000 gambling advertisements with the greatest reach. It classified 96.5% of ads in May as illegal, falling slightly to 93.7% in June.

Illegal advertising also spread across thousands of Facebook pages. Some 98.8% of gambling ads promoted through identified pages in June directed users toward unlicensed operators.

VNLOK said operators increasingly used cloaking, Telegram redirects, and the branding of well-known licensed companies to evade detection.

Removal rates remained relatively low. Meta removed 11% of more than 60,000 illegal ads tracked in May and 15% in June.

VNLOK Chairman Björn Fuchs said illegal gambling advertisements were still appearing “on a large scale” and undermining player protection.

The association started proceedings to sue Meta in June, and also filed a complaint with the European Commission. It wants gambling advertisers targeting Dutch consumers to undergo license verification before ads are published.