Dutch journalist enters 3 of 5 casinos, including Holland Casino, with a fake ID despite self-exclusion

The investigation by Dutch broadcaster PowNed has raised fresh questions about how effectively casinos check visitors against Cruks, the country’s national self-exclusion register. A reporter registered with the system was refused entry when using his own driving license but managed to enter several venues with a colleague’s document.

Reporter Tests Cruks Checks at 10 Dutch Casinos

PowNed reporter Abel Bijlsma set out to test whether casinos could identify him as a person registered with Cruks.

He visited 10 gambling venues in total. At five locations, he presented his own driving license. At the remaining five, he used the driving license of a colleague.

The difference was significant. Staff refused Bijlsma entry on all five occasions when he used his own ID. However, three of the five venues accepted him when he presented someone else’s license.

This meant that a visitor who was supposed to be excluded under Cruks was able to get through the entrance checks simply by using another person’s valid identification.

Holland Casino Among Three Venues

One of the venues involved was a Holland Casino location in Eindhoven. Bijlsma also managed to enter Jack’s Casino in Utrecht and Casino Be One in Rotterdam using his colleague’s driving license.

The documents themselves were genuine. The issue was that they belonged to other people, meaning the deception could only be detected by comparing the photograph with the person presenting the ID.

The investigation did not indicate that employees completely skipped the required checks. Instead, the staff members involved apparently failed to notice that the person standing in front of them did not match the photograph on the license.

KSA Calls Investigation a Serious Signal

The KSA has acknowledged the findings and described them as a serious signal. The regulator said casinos and gaming halls must carry out thorough identity checks and ensure that visitors registered with Cruks cannot enter.

Dutch gambling venues are required to check visitors using an accepted identity document, such as a passport, European identity card or Dutch driving license.

When staff have doubts about whether a document belongs to the person presenting it, they are expected to carry out additional checks. These can include asking for information such as the visitor’s date of birth.

The KSA has also reiterated its guidance to gambling venues and confirmed that it will take action following the investigation.

Dutch Politicians Demand Answers

The findings have attracted political attention as well. Dutch political parties JA21 and BBB are reportedly preparing parliamentary questions about the incident. The case could put additional pressure on the government and gambling industry to explain how self-exclusion controls can be bypassed despite the existing Cruks system.

The KSA has not yet disclosed what specific measures or sanctions could follow against the three venues. The investigation nevertheless highlights a weakness in the current system: Cruks checks may work when a visitor presents their own identification, but they can become ineffective if staff fail to recognise that a genuine document belongs to someone else.

 Could the Investigation Affect Online Casinos?

Although the PowNed investigation focused on land-based casinos, the findings could have wider consequences for the Dutch online gambling market. The key issue is not only whether a venue checks a visitor against Cruks, but whether an operator can reliably establish that the person using its services is the same person whose identity has been verified.

Holland Casino is a good example. The company operates both physical casinos and Holland Casino Online, where customers have to verify their identity and are checked against Cruks. While the online verification process is different from checking a driving license at a casino entrance, the underlying requirement is the same: a self-excluded person should not be able to gamble.

The KSA could therefore use the incident as a reason to look more closely at identity verification across the wider sector. This could lead operators to review their registration and KYC procedures, check how effectively their systems detect attempts to use another person’s identity and assess whether additional safeguards are necessary.

If further weaknesses are found, the issue could trigger a broader chain of checks involving other licensed online casinos. Such reviews could become part of the wider process of reassessing licensed operators in the Netherlands, five years after the online gambling market was opened. For operators, this could mean proving that their identity checks do more than verify documents and can actually prevent Cruks-registered players from accessing their services.