KSA Fines Vave.com EUR 3,082,000 for Offering Unlicensed Gambling in the Netherlands

The Dutch Gaming Authority (Kansspelautoriteit/KSA) has fined Chestoption Sociedad de Responsibilidad Limitada, the Costa Rica-based operator behind Vave.com, for illegally offering gambling to Dutch players. For PSPs and operators, the useful part is simple: the KSA is not just looking at license status, but at language, geotargeting, age checks, autoplay, and crypto acceptance as signs that a site is aimed at the Netherlands.

1. The KSA imposed a fine of EUR 3,082,000 ($3,571,833) after finding that Vave.com was available to players in the Netherlands despite the company not holding a Dutch license. The regulator said the site was actively targeting Dutch gamblers.
2. What pushed this into enforcement territory was the presentation of the gambling offering in Dutch, plus the absence of measures to block participation from the Netherlands. In other words, on paper it was a foreign site; in practice, the KSA said it was reaching Dutch users.
3. The regulator also pointed to three aggravating factors: no age verification, autoplay functionality, and the ability to gamble with cryptocurrencies. All three are prohibited in the Netherlands, which is why this was not treated as a routine licensing issue.
4. This was not the first time Vave.com had been hit with a similar penalty in the Netherlands, according to the KSA. That matters because repeat exposure tends to harden the regulator’s view of intent rather than mistake.
5. In a separate action, the KSA reprimanded Smart Gaming, Betnation’s parent company, over self-exclusion failures. The company did not carry out sufficient checks to identify excluded players, although the KSA noted that Betnation self-reported the issue and took immediate remediation, which is why the regulator stopped at a reprimand.

The Netherlands remains one of the more restrictive gambling markets in Europe, and the government is still considering additional measures. New proposals from Justice and Security State Secretary Claudia van Bruggen include a ban on online gambling ads, affordability measures, self-exclusion changes, and extra regulatory powers to block unlicensed gambling operators from reaching Dutch customers.