Dutch Student Grant System to be Funded By Raised Gambling Taxes

The amendment of a gambling bill in The Netherlands has been suggested in order to fund the Dutch student grant system. This is a suggestion by Roelof Bisschop, member of Dutch Parliament and Christian Right political party.

Lisa Westerveld, of Groenlinks environmentalist party, has co-sponsored the amendment. Tax increase details are part of a separate amendment to the country’s 2020 tax package.

A Handout to Under-Pressure Students

Certain media outlets in this country…

…such as De Volkskrant newspaper, claim that they know the details of this tax amendment, citing an increase from the current 30.1% rate to 38.5%.

How it would go down is this: the original amendment will raise the threshold of the maximum family income that would put that family in a driving seat for obtaining a grant for post-secondary education for a student in the household.

This would cost EUR100 million and the increased gambling tax could provide the necessary funding for this.

According to the amendment

“With the introduction of the loan system, middle incomes in particular have come under considerable pressure. Students from these families have limited or no right to a supplementary grant and are fully dependent on a loan. The pressure on students has therefore increased considerably.”

Dutch Reformed Political Party, which has sponsored the amendment, was against the gambling prevalence in their own manifesto.

They think that online gambling should not be legal (it was legalized earlier this year) and that Dutch Gambling regulator should make its staff even bigger so that enforcement regulations and powers are improved. They also oppose any advertising in gambling.

Dutch Story So Far

Soon after legalizing online gambling, Dutch authorities introduced stricter measures against marketers before the online gambling market launch in early 2020.

The crackdown on marketers that promote online gambling sites that target customers in this country has been performed by the regulator (Kansspelautoriteit) in accordance with current regulations that were enforced earlier this year.

Unauthorized online gambling marketing was found on 26 out of 44 websites.

Certain gaming operators such as LeoVegas and Kindred were also penalized by the KSA for failing to meet regulations and failing to protect the players.

Source:

“Dutch bill would raise gambling taxes to fund student grants”, igamingbusiness.com, November 6, 2019.