“The illegal sector is growing fast”: Top-Casino.nl sees danger for Belgium too

The Dutch online gambling market is under pressure. Stricter rules, higher taxes, and political discussions regarding a total advertising ban are creating major uncertainty. At the same time, illegal providers are gaining ground through Google and aggressive SEO techniques.

Paul van Deursen, the man behind Top-Casino.nl, has been in the middle of this world for years. In this interview, he shares how the sector has changed since the legalization of online gambling in the Netherlands. Van Deursen also warns of the consequences of increasingly strict rules and the growth of illegal entities, which are also gaining more and more ground in Belgium.

“The sector was immediately cast in a bad light”

Top-Casino.nl has existed within the affiliate world for years. How have you seen the online casino sector in the Netherlands change since legalization?

“The Dutch casino sector is constantly changing. Initially, this was due to the incomplete Remote Gambling Act. As a result, too much advertising was produced in the beginning. The sector was immediately cast in a bad light because of this.

Strong lobbying toward politicians led to extra measures, and they arrived, such as higher taxes, advertising restrictions, and play limits. However, these were introduced without properly researching the consequences of each measure. The upfront estimates were inaccurate, and subsequent measurements became pointless because new measures were already being taken right after.

Meanwhile, due to all these measures, the casino product is no longer attractive to many genuine gamblers and especially to at-risk groups. The illegal sector smells this immediately and targets the Dutch casino sector with large budgets.”

“We try to inform visitors neutrally”

You always state that responsible gaming behavior is important. How do you try to guide visitors safely to casino providers?

“First, we try to provide information as neutrally as possible so that visitors can make an informed choice themselves. All casino reviews are structured identically, making the rating score fixed. On game pages, the titles are not hyped up, but rather described.

Additionally, we have various tools, such as for calculating the real bonus value, or our casino selector tool. We believe that visitors only make wise choices when given the right information. In the long term, this builds trust with the visitor.

The website also features an extensive section on responsible gaming, with warnings placed in relevant areas. Finally, from the very start, the website joined the KVA, which audits the website annually against the strict advertising guidelines and compliance rules in the Netherlands.”

“Illegal affiliates are gaining more and more ground”

What do you think are the biggest differences between the affiliate world five years ago and today?

“The affiliate world in the Netherlands has completely changed over the last few years. In 2021, new affiliates wanting to participate emerged instantly from all corners. Large international entities with lots of experience, existing mainstream Dutch websites utilizing their domain authority, or starting with a fresh website. Smaller web agencies and affiliates joined too.

Partly due to intense competition—since legal casinos now also rank in the search results with a Dutch website—not many of these parties survived. Over time, more and more illegal affiliates have emerged.

Using highly questionable techniques like cloaking, parasite SEO, and buying up expired domains, they are gaining more and more ground. This is alarming because they specifically target vulnerable groups, such as players registered in the Cruks self-exclusion registry.

Currently, politicians are working toward a total advertising ban in the Netherlands. I hope the political sphere realizes that if legal affiliates disappear, the illegal sector will immediately fill the void, with all the negative consequences that entails for Dutch players.”

“The stricter rules hit the business model”

The Dutch market has recently seen significant tightening in terms of regulation. What impact have these stricter rules had on affiliate websites like Top-Casino.nl?

“In truth, it didn’t have a massive impact on the website itself. The site already met the highest requirements, and we are constantly working to keep the platform responsible and trustworthy.

Stricter rules for affiliate websites are also adopted by the KVA. We follow all advice given by the KVA to affiliate websites to remain compliant.

However, restrictive measures do influence the business model of legal affiliates in general. Due to stricter requirements, the legal product has become less attractive to gamblers, particularly those playing with larger amounts.

The gambling tax has also been increased for the casinos themselves. This means that commissions toward affiliate websites have dropped drastically. Add to that the fact that the illegal affiliate sector occupies prominent positions in the search results.”

“The regulator maintains sharp oversight”

Do you notice that affiliates face more pressure nowadays from regulators and major entities within the industry?

“It is clear that the Dutch regulator, the KSA, maintains sharp oversight over all corners of the sector, including affiliates. For instance, streamers working via the affiliate model were recently banned.

Other major influential parties are primarily the addiction care organizations. They would prefer to ban all gambling advertising, which includes casino affiliates.

Without wishing to speak only for my own parish, I do not believe a total advertising ban is wise. The illegal sector does not care about it, leaving only illegal advertising behind.

I would, however, understand further restrictions on advertising, such as a ban on retargeting and display ads in Google. In my view, the principle should be: people who are not actively searching for gambling should not be confronted with gambling ads. People who make a conscious choice to gamble should easily find their way to a legal offer with an attractive product.”

“Our website was completely copied five times”

You mentioned that you even experience attacks on your websites. What kind of attacks are these exactly, and how do you handle them?

“There are several black-hat SEO techniques originating from the illegal sector. Not just our website, but those of colleagues, legal online casinos, and even the gambling authority itself have been the target of attacks.

Our website has been completely cloned five times now, and there have been 30 requests to remove our content from Google under the false pretense that we violated trademark or copyright laws.

This is obviously not the case, but it takes a lot of time and energy to rectify. Instead of building a great website, we now also have to constantly defend our platform against these kinds of attacks. DDoS attacks have also occurred on more than one occasion.”

“Google pulls pages out of search results instantly”

You also mentioned take-down requests within Google. Can you explain what is happening there and how big the impact is on your business?

“Via Google, and Bing for that matter, it is very simple to file a claim against another website stating they stole your content.

The claim can be filed anonymously, and you do not have to prove that you represent the website for which you are submitting the claim in any way. Google can then, based purely on that claim, remove the page in question from the search results entirely.

When you discover this, you can file a counter-notice. It then takes at least two weeks for the counter-notice to be reviewed. The illegal sector uses this trick en masse to disadvantage competing websites and overload the Google Removals team with claims.”

“SEO remains the most important traffic source”

How important is SEO for casino affiliates today compared to, for example, social media or communities?

“I still view SEO as the primary source for website traffic. Social media acts as a support system for it. Traffic coming from AI is also steadily increasing.

Communities can be a great way to acquire a loyal group of visitors. Gambling streamers were a prime example of this, though this is now banned in the Netherlands. A forum or a social media channel can also build a community.”

“Big Tech decides what is visible”

How do you view the role of Google within the online gambling industry? Has its power become too great?

“Not just Google, the role of Big Tech as a whole has become too great. Meta, Google, Microsoft, and now also OpenAI hold all the strings and dictate what we as website owners must do to remain profitable.

In itself, that isn’t necessarily bad, but they also act as gatekeepers for what is and isn’t shown on their platforms.

Big Tech could ensure that less advertising is permitted for illegal offers. They could ensure that DMCA complaints are verified first, rather than only after a counter-complaint is submitted.

Big Tech could actually help make the gambling industry mature and reliable. Governments also have a duty to point companies toward this responsibility.”

“Belgium makes a wiser choice on this point”

Around 10% of your traffic comes from Belgium. How do you view the Belgian market and its regulations?

“I think it is wise that an exception was made in Belgium for affiliate websites as an acquisition channel for online casinos. This ensures that those actively searching for gambling offers end up with legal operators.

However, raising the age limit from 18 to 21 is, in my opinion, unwise. Precisely the youth can now only gamble with unlicensed providers, where no duty of care exists. I don’t think you protect young people by excluding them from the legal offering.”

“This market needs stability and evaluation”

Do you think the Netherlands will eventually achieve a better-regulated market?

“Work is being done on an advertising ban and adjustments to laws and regulations. It remains to be seen what exactly that will look like.

In any case, it seems wise to carefully monitor the consequences of the upcoming adjustments and evaluate them after a period of time before introducing new changes again. Only then can this still young market mature. Constantly changing the rules of the game does not help.

The focus from politicians and the industry should lie on two things: combating the illegal offering and improving the execution of the duty of care. Not on further restricting the possibilities of the legal offer or the attractiveness of the product.”