The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has warned operators against various bad practices it flagged during an assessment of player affordability checks, including documents to provide proof of income.
Since October, operators in the Netherlands have been required to perform means testing on players seeking to deposit more than the limits imposed by the KSA.
Net monthly player deposit limits are set at €700 (£581.89/$729.10) or €300 for those aged between 18 and 25. As of 1 October these limits are automatically enacted on the first day of each calendar month.
However, for those players seeking to override the measure and deposit more throughout the month, operators are required to carry out affordability checks to ensure they are financially able to bet more.
But the regulator is unhappy with some of the measures operators are using to assess player affordability and the approach to those ignoring their net deposit limits.
Affordability checks have not been sufficient
Yesterday (4 February) the KSA issued a letter to licensed operators, outlining what it considers good and bad practices within these affordability checks. Bad practices include operators accepting income statements from players instead of pay slips and allowing players to continue to deposit after reaching their limit.
Income statements typically show a person’s gross salary without including deductions made to tax, pension contributions etc.
The KSA said that some licensees are accepting player income statements, plausibility tests and questionaires to support their requests to bypass deposit limits.
“These are insufficient to determine whether it is plausible that a player can bear the financial consequences of a higher deposit limit,” the regulator’s letter said.
“Increasing the net deposit based on this type of information is not permitted.”
Elsewhere, the regulator flagged operators were not assessing the right receipts when requesting proof of income from players.
It said if a player has numerous sources of income, some assets should not be considered viable for players wanting to increase their limits. These include borrowed money, tax allowances, partner or family income, or reimbursement of business expenses.
Some other receipts considered unviable as proof of financial affordability are deposits from a savings account to a checking account and proof of a refund for a large purchase. Proof of an inheritance is also not viable.
Operators have also been warned against allowing players to deposit after already exceeding their monthly limit. The KSA claimed this has been allowed by a number of operators.
“This is not allowed,” the regulator said. “We have summoned these providers to immediately apply an automatic block after exceeding the net deposit limit.”
Finally, operators have been reminded that they must ensure player data is analysed correctly and any errors should be prevented.
Some operators going above and beyond
Comparatively, a number of good practices by operators going above and beyond in their checks were also highlighted, including not enabling young adults to increase their deposit limits even if they can prove their affordability and providing options for additional daily and weekly deposit limits.
