Key Points
- Skyhills N.V., a Curaçao-based operator with no Dutch licence, went offline immediately after Nederlandse Loterij filed civil proceedings against it and all parties operating the site.
- The KSA’s record €24.8m fine against Novatech was less than a quarter of what the regulator’s own chair said the penalty should have been, exposing a structural gap in Dutch enforcement.
- Illegal operators now hold half the Dutch gambling market and produce 95% of all gambling advertising seen by Dutch consumers, yet Parliament is actively debating restrictions on the licensed operators responsible for none of it.
Skyhills Went Offline Before the Court Even Ruled
Skyhills didn’t need to wait for a judge. The company operating from Curaçao and allowing Dutch consumers to make bets and open accounts without having a license in the Netherlands removed its website right after Nederlandse Loterij issued an announcement about civil proceedings against the company on 1 September 2026. No fines, no regulatory warnings, no lengthy procedure of enforcement.
That speed is worth sitting with. The Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) has been fining unlicensed operators for years, and the illegal market has still grown to control half the country’s total gambling activity. One civil lawsuit, targeting not just Skyhills N.V. but every director, trust office and shell company behind it, produced a result in days that regulation could not deliver in years. Nederlandse Loterij CEO Arjan Blok noted the outcome with clear satisfaction. “That is unacceptable. That is why it is good to see that, following our first step, the Skyhills site went offline immediately,” he said.
TikTok, Young Players, and No Protection Whatsoever
What made Skyhills stand out, even against a crowded field of unlicensed operators, was how it targeted Dutch consumers. Blok described the platform’s advertising methods as “devious,” with campaigns running on TikTok explicitly aimed at young people. Once those players arrived at the site, there was no age verification, no deposit limit, no responsible gambling tool of any kind. “They can gamble there completely unprotected, with all the associated risks,” Blok said.
That detail matters beyond this specific case. The KSA cannot sanction a Curaçao company for running TikTok ads in the Netherlands without the legal tools to reach offshore entities. Nederlandse Loterij’s civil approach sidesteps that jurisdictional wall by pursuing the network of parties who enable the site, wherever they are registered.
Why a Civil Lawsuit Hits Where a Fine Cannot Reach?
The KSA’s enforcement record is not the problem. Its legal ceiling is. When the authority issued a record €24.8m fine to Novatech, operator of Qbet and 55Bet, in March 2026, KSA Chair Michel Groothuizen publicly said the number should have been far higher. Dutch law caps fines at 10% of global turnover. Novatech had earned hundreds of millions from Dutch players alone. “A fine of €24m sounds impressive, but without the 10% maximum, the fine would have exceeded €100m; an amount that would be more appropriate for this offence,” Groothuizen said.
A civil lawsuit carries a different kind of pressure. It does not calculate a percentage of turnover; it pursues individuals. Directors, trust company officers and facilitators face personal liability under Nederlandse Loterij’s approach, not just a corporate penalty that offshore holding structures can absorb. When the lottery launched civil action against Qbet’s operators in April 2026, it named not just the operating company but everyone behind the chain. Blok explained the logic directly: “Not only the direct offender, but also everyone behind them who facilitates this site. With the goal of shutting down and keeping illegal gambling sites shut down.”
Lalabet Lost in Court, and That Changed Everything
The Skyhills case did not arrive in a vacuum. The lottery filed its first civil lawsuit against Costa Rica-based Lalabet in March 2025, demanding it cease Dutch operations immediately and seeking compensation for lost revenue. Blok had estimated at the time that Lalabet and similar unlicensed competitors cost Nederlandse Loterij between €15m and €20m in revenue across 2023 and 2024. The court later ruled in the lottery’s favour, ordering Lalabet’s operators to stop serving Dutch consumers and confirming that their conduct was unlawful toward Nederlandse Loterij.
That ruling gave the civil strategy credibility. Skyhills is now the third target, and its rapid disappearance from the Dutch market suggests the operators behind these sites are watching the Lalabet precedent closely. A winning legal track record, backed by personal liability claims against directors, is a more immediate threat than a fine capped by statute.
Half the Market Is Illegal – Parliament Meets Tomorrow
It is remarkable how high Blok sets the figures related to this statement. In fact, now the illegal gambling operators are in control of one-half of the total gambling market of the Netherlands. They also provide 95% of all gambling advertisements which can be seen by people living in the Netherlands. Approximately 200,000 residents of the country are already playing at illegal gambling sites, where, according to Blok’s previous statements, gamblers “play more often and with more money.” A discussion was planned in the Dutch parliament on gambling on 3 September 2026, just after the Skyhills announcement, and the lottery took advantage of the situation to make their demands known.
Blok’s demand was not limited to expanding the powers of the KSA. He demanded that the Public Prosecution Service start criminal prosecution in addition to civil and regulatory actions. Moreover, he appealed to the private sector – banks, payment systems, and web-hosting companies should all stop assisting illegal gambling websites. The government of the Netherlands already considered making stricter regulations for advertisement but Blok pointed out that it will work too slowly to solve the current problem.
The Advertising Ban Paradox Nobody Wants to Acknowledge
Ahead of the parliamentary session, a proposal for a total ban on gambling advertising by licensed operators had gathered serious political support. Blok pushed back hard, and the data behind his argument is difficult to dismiss. Legal operators produce 5% of the gambling advertising Dutch consumers see. Illegal operators produce the other 95%. Silencing the 5% does not clean up Dutch media; it simply removes the only segment of gambling advertising that is regulated, accountable and linked to sites with player protection tools.
VNLOK chairman Björn Fuchs made the same point in February 2026, arguing that the regulated market’s visibility is precisely what allows players to identify safe platforms. “A total ban on advertising undermines exactly that starting point,” he said.
Expert Analysis
We think the advertising ban debate is where the Netherlands risks making its most consequential mistake, and the data for that argument is already sitting in plain sight. Five years after launching a regulated online gambling market, the country has tightened advertising rules on licensed operators repeatedly, while the unlicensed sector has expanded from a grey market nuisance into a dominant force controlling half of total gambling activity. At some point, it becomes reasonable to ask whether the policy is producing its intended effect, or whether it is simply making the legal market smaller and the illegal market larger.
The structural fine cap problem is equally telling. When the KSA chair publicly says a €24.8m fine should have been over €100m, and then Parliament considers restricting the advertising of the operators who pay their taxes and follow the rules, the policy logic becomes hard to follow. Blok’s call for criminal prosecution is the right instinct, but it reflects how far the current framework falls short of the actual problem’s scale. Civil lawsuits are filling a gap that law and regulation have left open, and Nederlandse Loterij cannot sustain that role indefinitely while the illegal market keeps expanding around it.
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