Nederlandse Loterij has issued a formal demand to the operators and executives of the illegal gambling site Skyhills to cease operations in the Netherlands.

Nederlandse Loterij is also holding them liable and seeking further information regarding the company’s corporate structure. Since the demand was issued, the illegal platform has been inaccessible in the Netherlands.

The companies and individuals involved are based in Costa Rica, North Macedonia, and the United Kingdom, as well as in Curaçao, Malta, and the Marshall Islands. Skyhills is the third illegal gambling site against which Nederlandse Loterij has taken legal action.

Through this demand, the gambling organization aims to shut down the website and gain clarity on the parties behind it, enabling potential targeted follow-up legal action. That first objective has thus been achieved.

Arjan Blok, CEO of Nederlandse Loterij: “Player protection is a top priority for Nederlandse Loterij. We want players to be able to participate in our games of chance safely and responsibly. Through underhanded advertising—including on TikTok—Skyhills explicitly targets Dutch players, and young people in particular. They can gamble there completely unprotected, with all the associated risks. That is unacceptable. It is therefore gratifying to see that, following our initial step, the Skyhills site was immediately taken offline.”

The House of Representatives is set to debate gambling this coming Thursday. Nederlandse Loterij advocates for responsible gaming and therefore supports a significant portion of the plans regarding gambling proposed by the State Secretary for Justice and Security. For instance, it is a positive development that the Gaming Authority is being granted greater powers to crack down on illegal gambling sites.

“However, a legislative amendment will take years to materialize. That is why the government must take greater action now to tackle illegal gambling sites—for instance, through criminal prosecution by the Public Prosecution Service, in addition to the legal steps that the regulator and the Dutch Lottery (as a legal operator) can take.

We must join forces to combat illegal gambling sites, where players are left completely unprotected. Banks, payment providers, and hosting services also bear a responsibility in this regard,” says Arjan Blok.