Dutch Market Becomes Greener Pastures for Gambling Companies

While the Netherlands is known for being a country that supports its citizens in living the lives, they desire it has been oddly quiet around the topic of online gambling.

Their approach to land-based gambling has however been a little less of a live-and-let-live affair with Dutch state-owned casino, Holland Casino, controlling gambling on the ground in the Netherlands. They offer fourteen casino locations which funnel their profits directly into the government’s coffers.

There was some concern that this might be the approach that the Netherlands Gambling Authority (Ksa) might recommend for Dutch online gambling. However, a recent draft of the Remote Gambling Act (Wet kansspelen op afstand) has created a lot of positive buzz around the market as a potential ‘greener pasture’ for online gambling companies looking to expand their European presence.

The Remote Gambling Act

It seems that one of the main reason the Ksa has been fairly quiet since its institution in 2012 has been the fact that the proposed granting of remote gambling licences is not allowed for under the current legislation.

The need to grant such licences requires that the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security create subordinate legislation to authorise Ksa to fulfil this function.

René Jansen, chair of the Ksa, said:

“Such an operation places quite a high demand on an organisation the size of the Ksa,” … “However, we are doing everything in our power to get it done. If we cannot manage with our permanent staff, we will hire external staff.”

The required authorisation and additional bills are expected to be filed and approved by July 1st, 2020 to allow the Ksa to review and process the expected influx of licence applications.

The market is expected to open for regulated business on the morning of January 1st, 2021!

Did You Toe The Line?

While the news of a regulated Dutch gambling market has been a cause for celebration some the conditions for a licence application have given gambling operators pause.

 The market is a valuable one, and most operators know this from experience, not research. In particular, it is a well-known fact that to operate successfully in the market you needed to offer the payment solution iDeal.

One of the application assessment criteria is “Did the provider employ means of payment that are exclusively or predominantly used by Dutch consumers?”

Some of their other assessment criteria include:

• Did the provider have a website with the .nl extension?
• Did the provider use advertising aimed at the Dutch market on the radio, on television or in print media?
• Did the provider own one or more domain names that combine references to games of chance with terms that typically pertain to the Netherlands?
• Did the website(s) on which the games of chance were offered contain one or more characteristics that suggest that they were targeting the Netherlands?

There is however a 2-year period of grace on these assessment areas. This means that if the offense took place more than 2 years before their application is submitted it will be automatically excused.

If the offence fell within the 2-year window the Ksa website, simply states that the applicant “will be ineligible for a licence”. The best bet seems to be delaying the application process till the window has expired, rather than face the wrath of the Ksa and risk a longer-term suspension.