The Netherlands’ state-owned lottery operator, Nederlandse Loterij, has launched civil proceedings against the country’s largest unlicensed online gambling platform. It also directly targets the offshore shell companies and individual directors behind it in a case that could set a European precedent for how licensed operators combat black market rivals.
Key Takeaways:
- Nederlandse Loterij sued Qbet’s operators and directors at The Hague, targeting the offshore shell network behind the Netherlands’ largest illegal gambling site
- KSA chair said the record €24.8M fine should have exceeded €100M but Dutch law caps penalties at 10% of global turnover
- 53% of Dutch online gambling spend goes to unlicensed platforms, with crypto and anonymous payments cited as aggravating factors
The operator filed suit against the operators and directors behind Qbet at the District Court of The Hague, with the first hearing taking place on April 9. The company, which runs the world’s oldest running lottery and the TOTO online gambling brand, identified Qbet as the biggest illegal gambling site currently operating in the Netherlands.
Licensed Operator Goes After Offshore Shell Network
Nederlandse Loterij is directly seeking to hold operators, trust offices, letterbox companies, and their directors personally liable for running an unlicensed gambling operation that it says endangers Dutch consumers.
“Players can still easily access illegal gambling sites, without age checks and playing limits and with irresponsible bonuses and misleading payment methods,” said Arjan Blok, CEO of Nederlandse Loterij, in a statement. “That is why Nederlandse Loterij takes its responsibility and takes the largest illegal gambling site to court. Not only the direct offender, but also everyone behind it who facilitates this site.” The entities behind Qbet, and its sister site, 55Bet, are registered in Curaçao and Costa Rica. Both platforms are operated by Novatech Solutions.
The civil action follows a record €24.8 million administrative fine imposed on Novatech Solutions, the operator of both Qbet and 55Bet, by the Dutch Gaming Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, or KSA) in March. The authority’s compliance staff found that Dutch users could easily create accounts, deposit funds, and gamble on Novatech’s platforms without any geographic restrictions or age verification. The acceptance of cryptocurrency and anonymous payment methods was cited as an aggravating factor, raising concerns about potential money laundering.
KSA chair Michel Groothuizen said at the time that the penalty should have been far higher. Dutch law caps fines at 10% of an operator’s global turnover, a limitation Groothuizen called inadequate given the scale of Novatech’s operations. He estimated the fine would have exceeded €100 million without the cap, based on the hundreds of millions the company allegedly earned from Dutch players.
The scale of the Dutch black market underlines the urgency. According to the KSA, 53% of all money wagered on online gambling in the Netherlands goes to unlicensed platforms, even though 94% of players use licensed operators. Blok estimated that approximately 200,000 Dutch citizens are gambling on illegal sites, facing all associated risks.
The Qbet case is Nederlandse Loterij’s second civil action against an illegal operator. In March 2025, the company sued Lalabet, a Costa Rica-based platform it said was among the largest unlicensed providers in the market. Nederlandse Loterij claimed Lalabet’s operations had cost the lottery between €15 million and €20 million in lost turnover across 2023 and 2024 – a novel approach from a private entity to go beyond the limits of administrative enforcement. The first hearing in that case also took place on April 9, with a ruling expected on May 20.
Novatech Solutions was administered by a Curaçao-based trust office called Downtown E-commerce Company (DECC). The same trust office also served as administrator for Lalabet, the Costa Rica-based operator Nederlandse Loterij sued in a separate case last March. It argued that DECC’s role in both operations makes it directly liable for facilitating unlicensed gambling in the Netherlands – a claim DECC has disputed in court, telling the District Court of The Hague that it was a local corporate services provider and not the operator itself.
Shortly after the KSA penalty was announced, Novatech Solutions dissolved its registration with the Curaçao Chamber of Commerce on March 11, though its sites continued to operate. Nederlandse Loterij says this is common among illegal operators who restructure to evade enforcement. The Qbet website remained at least partially accessible from the Netherlands as of early April. At the time of writing, it also remains up in different European markets, though new account registration appeared to have been restricted locally, according to Dutch media reports.
Sweden’s Spelinspektionen (the national gambling authority) banned Novatech from operating in the country on March 11, one day after the Dutch fine was issued, after an investigation found its platforms were actively targeting Swedish users.
