Dutch gambling regulator sends Meta thousands of reports on illegal gambling ads
The KSA also aims to tackle unlicensed operators using the names and logos of well-known Dutch athletes and brands.
The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) says it filed over 4,600 reports with Meta regarding advertisements for unlicensed gambling in April. The regulator has stepped up the frequency of its reports to the owner of Facebook and Instagram to report ads from operators that don’t have a KSA licence as part of its working group on illegal gambling.
It says a recent meeting of the alliance also included the sharing of current knowledge, trends and insights. The working group also discussed how companies can protect their trademarks and held a brainstorming session on what else is needed to tackle illegal providers on social media.
“Illegal gambling providers place many advertisements on social media,” the KSA said. “In doing so, they use names and logos of well-known Dutch athletes and major brands to enhance their credibility. It is often difficult for consumers to determine whether a gambling provider holds a licence. To protect consumers, the KSA is therefore making a strong effort to combat online advertising by illegal providers.”
Concerns over licensed gambling ads in the Netherlands
It’s not only unlicensed gambling ads that are causing concerns in the Netherlands. A recent study by the City University of Hong Kong and the University of Bristol found that a significant portion of KSA-licensed gambling operators’ ads on Facebook and Instagram may have breached age-targeting restrictions.
While online gaming licence holders were found to be more compliant, with only 7.3 per cent of their adverts falling short, offline licence holders had a much higher rate of non-compliance, with nearly 30 per cent of their campaigns breaching the Netherlands’ ban on targeting ads at under 24s.
The breaches were found to be partly the result of a reliance on Meta’s automated Advantage+ optimisation tool, which defaults the starting target age to 18 unless manually adjusted. The report also cited limitations in Meta’s reporting system, which uses broad age brackets such as 18–24, making it difficult for advertisers to verify compliance with the requirement to specifically exclude 18–23-year-olds.
The study recommended that Meta provide reach data in single-year increments. It also suggested that the tech giant could apply country-specific legal age minimums by default. Meanwhile, the researchers recommend that the Dutch gambling regulator KSA clarify to land-based gambling licensees that they are required to comply with the same restrictions as online operators when advertising online.
More radically, the report proposes tighter enforcement measures, included the pre-authorisation of gambling adverts. The government has already been pushing to go even further, proposing a complete ban on gambling ads in the Netherlands.
https://focusgn.com/dutch-gambling-regulator-inundates-meta-with-thousands-of-reports-of-illegal-gambling-ads