Kansspelautoriteit, the Dutch gaming authority, has improved the controls of its Cruks API service with an update that allows exceptions in personal data to be processed better.
The Netherlands’ gambling market regulator stated that ID documentation problems that have sometimes occurred previously when players register to the self-exclusion service, such as missing first or last names or an ‘invalid’ birth date when the exact date of birth is unknown, have now been resolved thanks to the API.
Dutch gambling operators must check for a customer’s registration on Cruks to make sure that players who have signed up for the self-exclusion service can’t gamble. The KSA noted that there are currently around 75,000 registrations with the service.
However, in exceptional cases previously when players registered with Cruks with missing ID information, it can result in problems when gambling providers check for their names.
The KSA added that the API update to Cruks has resolved these problems and that a letter has been sent to all providers detailing whether and how they can switch to the API.
The update to the Cruks self-exclusion service comes as the Nederlandse Online Gambling Associatie, the Dutch online gambling association, recently expressed its concern with the number of people seeking gambling addiction support.
NOGA’s concern was made in response to figures on the Addiction Care Key Figures 2018 – 2023 report from Landelijk Alcohol en Drugs Informatie Systeem, the Netherlands’ National Alcohol and Drugs Information System.
According to LADIS, the number of people in the Netherlands in addiction care with gambling as their primary problem has risen from 1,920 people in 2022, to 2,456 people in 2023, with gambling addiction accounting for a four per cent share of the total problems in addiction care.
