Dutch Government Pushes Back the Online Gambling Market Launch Date

Kansspelautoriteit – Dutch gambling regulator – has pushed back the launch date of the forthcoming online gambling market in The Netherlands. Originally slated for January 1st 2021, it will now go live on June 1st of the same year.

Sander Dekker, Dutch Minister for Legal Protection, said that the legislation will be implemented on January 1st 2021. After that, the regulatory body will process the license applications before the market open on summer.

A Six-Month Delay

This is a six-month delay from the original date of July 1st 2020…

…which is when the Remote Gaming Act was going to come into force. Before it goes into effect, there are some secondary regulations that must be ed. After that, licensing conditions must be finalized.

In February of this year, two motions were ed alongside the Remote Gaming Act: one was going to implement the framework of informing the Dutch legislature of the criteria for internet service providers blocking gambling website access.

The second one wanted to instate the ban on iGaming advertising.

The Question of Access

When it comes to blocking access to websites…

…Dekker said the Dutch government plans two paths for this. One was for providers to voluntarily report sites that contain illegal content and then take it down. The other road proposes taking down the site that violates Penal Code.

He added that both can and may be applied to illegal gambling providers. “The Gaming Authority will do this where appropriate.”

Dekker did it, however, that KSA’s hands may be tied too much for them to apply these into action.

What About Advertising?

Dekker finally commented on the question of gambling advertising.

“The current gambling policy involves channeling [players to legal site] through attractive offers. This implies that the offer must be sufficiently suitable and attractive for the players to guide players to the legal, reliable and responsible supply. The research conducted shows that channelisation requires some advertising.”

He explained that advertising is more important for providers of online gambling than for providers of offline games of chance.

Source:

“Government pushes back Dutch market launch date”, igamingbusiness.com, November 19, 2019.