Dutch Lottery Takes Curacao-Licensed Skyhills to Court Over Unlicensed Play

Nederlandse Loterij is not waiting for the regulator. It is suing an unlicensed operator directly, and the complaint singles out TikTok advertising aimed at Dutch players.

• Nederlandse Loterij has begun legal action against Skyhills and the parties involved in operating it, over gambling offered to Dutch consumers without a Dutch licence
• The site is operated by Skyhills N.V., which is based in Curacao
• The lottery says Skyhills holds no Dutch licence but allowed consumers in the country to create accounts and gamble on the platform
• Chief executive Arjan Blok criticised what he called devious advertising, including on TikTok, explicitly targeting Dutch players
• The claim seeks to force Skyhills and those operating it to stop offering gambling in the Netherlands, on the basis that the activity is unlawful and damages licensed operators

A Licensee Suing an Unlicensed Rival Directly

Nederlandse Loterij, the Dutch state lottery operator, has taken Skyhills and the parties involved in running the site to court. The action concerns gambling offered to consumers in the Netherlands without a Dutch licence.

According to the lottery, Skyhills does not hold a Dutch licence, yet allowed consumers in the country to open accounts and gamble on its platform. The site is operated by Skyhills N.V., a Curacao-based company. The claim asks the court to require Skyhills and those operating it to stop offering gambling in the Netherlands, on the basis that the activity is unlawful and causes damage to operators that do hold licences.

Chief executive Arjan Blok was direct about the marketing. He criticised what he described as devious advertising, including on TikTok, used to target Dutch players explicitly.

This is not the operator's first such action. Nederlandse Loterij has previously brought claims against other unlicensed sites serving the Dutch market, and the pattern is now established enough to read as strategy rather than reaction.

Private Enforcement Fills a Gap the Regulator Cannot

The Netherlands Gambling Authority has the power to fine and to block, and it uses both. What it cannot easily do is move at the speed of a marketing campaign, and it cannot recover the commercial damage a licensee suffers while an unlicensed competitor takes its customers. A civil claim by the licensee can seek an injunction on a different timetable and on a different legal basis, namely unlawful competition rather than regulatory breach. For a market where channelisation by spend has fallen below half, that difference is not academic. The licensed sector has concluded it cannot wait for public enforcement alone.

The Curacao Detail Is Becoming a Pattern

Skyhills N.V. is Curacao-based, and this is the second time in two days that a Curacao entity has appeared at the centre of an enforcement story, after Brazilian prosecutors alleged a Curacao shell company was used to make an onshore operation appear offshore. Curacao has reformed its regime and brought licensees under direct supervision, which changed what the licence signifies. It has not changed how the licence is used by operators serving markets that have their own licensing regimes, and it confers nothing in those markets. Enforcement bodies and licensed competitors have both worked that out, and the volume of actions naming Curacao entities is the result.

Advertising Is Where Unlicensed Operators Become Findable

The most useful part of the complaint for the rest of the industry is the emphasis on TikTok. An unlicensed operator serving a foreign market is hard to reach through company law and easy to reach through its marketing, because the advertising has to be visible to work. Naming the channel turns an enforcement problem into a platform problem, and platforms respond to legal claims from national operators faster than they respond to regulators in markets where they have no establishment. Expect more claims built this way.

An unlicensed operator can be difficult to sue and simple to expose. Nederlandse Loterij has chosen to do both at once.