Franssen accuses the KSA of inaction over Meta 

Dutch lawyer Justin Franssen believes that the Kansspelautoriteit already has the legal powers it needs to act against Meta and the spread of advertisements for illegal casinos. He accuses the regulator of leaving part of the fight against the black market to licensed operators and their representatives. 

Meta taken to court after dialogue fails 

VNLOK has decided to take Meta to court in the Netherlands. Its chairman, Björn Fuchs, says the decision was made after attempts to engage in dialogue with the technology group failed. According to him, approaches made to Meta about advertisements for unlicensed casinos mainly resulted in automated responses. 

VNLOK is now asking a Dutch court to require Meta to comply with its obligations under the European Digital Services Act. Björn Fuchs says he is confident about the outcome of the case. He points out in particular that civil courts in France and Germany have already held Meta responsible in cases involving advertisements for illegal gambling. 

Why do operators have to go to court themselves? 

The situation has angered Justin Franssen. During a round-table discussion on the Dutch gambling market, the lawyer questioned why private companies themselves have to launch legal proceedings to combat illegal gambling. 

VNLOK is not the only organisation to have chosen this route. Nederlandse Loterij has also brought civil actions against several illegal operators, including Lalabet and Qbet. The company won its case against Lalabet. 

For Franssen, these initiatives highlight a contradiction: licensed operators are subject to increasingly strict restrictions, while the fight against illegal operators and their advertising channels still relies heavily on discussions, warnings and private initiatives. 

According to the lawyer, the time for endless dialogue is over. He now wants a much more aggressive policy against the illegal market. 

Franssen believes the KSA can already act 

Justin Franssen argues that the regulator already has the legal tools it needs to intervene against Meta and other platforms that distribute advertisements for prohibited gambling. 

He therefore considers it “absolutely incomprehensible” that a regulator partly funded by operators continues to claim that it does not have sufficient capacity to enforce the rules. 

His argument is based on Dutch gambling law. The legislation no longer merely prohibits the promotion of illegal gambling; it also targets the facilitation of such gambling. In Franssen’s view, distributing advertisements that allow illegal casinos to reach players falls directly into that category. 

“For me, what Meta and other platforms are doing clearly constitutes a form of facilitation,” he explained. 

Is a new power really necessary? 

A proposal considered by Parliament would allow the KSA to intervene when a platform such as Meta fails to respond to requests to remove advertisements. 

The lawyer, however, considers this approach unnecessary. In his view, those powers already exist. The problem would therefore not be the lack of a legal basis, but the failure to use the instruments that are already available. 

“It can already do it. It simply does not,” Franssen summarised. 

Fuchs criticises five years of talks with Meta 

Björn Fuchs shares part of this assessment. 

The VNLOK chairman said he was surprised that the KSA still prefers dialogue and cooperation with Meta on the grounds that such a strategy would be more effective in the long term. In his view, the results of the past five years do not support that approach. 

“We have seen what has happened over the past five years. It does not hold up,” he said. 

VNLOK has therefore decided to move from dialogue to legal action. 

The organisation nevertheless expects Meta to challenge the jurisdiction of the Dutch courts and seek to have the case transferred to Dublin, where its European operations are based. Such a procedural dispute could delay consideration of the substance of the case. 

The summons has been filed with the Amsterdam District Court. No hearing date has yet been announced. 

Technology is evolving faster than regulation 

For Björn Fuchs, the problem goes far beyond the advertisements currently being shown on social media. 

He believes that policy and legislation regularly lag several years behind technological reality. The development of automatically generated advertisements and automated accounts could widen that gap even further. 

A recent Dutch study tested ten different digital assistants. All of them mentioned at least one operator that did not have authorisation in the Netherlands. 

Three of those tools presented unauthorised sites in a way that could make users believe they were legal. One of them even produced a selection of fifty casinos presented as legal, even though some of the brands mentioned did not have KSA authorisation. 

For Fuchs, this finding shows how quickly the methods used to promote the illegal market are evolving. 

VNLOK also wants a European response 

When launching its legal action, VNLOK also filed a formal complaint with the European Commission. Björn Fuchs confirms that discussions are under way with several European bodies, without providing further details. 

In his view, the problem posed by Meta goes beyond national borders. 

VNLOK is already exchanging information with industry organisations in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Spain. 

Fuchs now wants national regulatory authorities to strengthen their cooperation as well, in order to identify the common methods used by illegal operators.