The chairman of the Dutch gambling regulator, Michel Groothuizen, stated that 50 euro cents of every euro that residents of the country spend on gambling goes to operators without licenses. According to his estimate, this results in the state losing over 500 million euros in taxes annually.
Groothuizen acknowledged that multimillion-euro fines for such operators do not solve the problem. Illegal companies quickly change legal entities, and many of them are registered outside the European Union, including in the Comoros, making it difficult to enforce fines.
According to the regulator's chairman, the worst part is that illegal operators bear no responsibility for players. As an example of immoral behavior, he cited a recent case where a gambling advertisement website posed as the Dutch suicide prevention service. Groothuizen also claims that most illegal operators actively seek users among people with gambling problems registered in the self-exclusion system, Cruks.
Groothuizen called for stricter measures against illegal gambling and increased pressure from the European Union on technology and financial companies.