New Dutch Remote Gambling Act Draft Is Far Gentler Than Expected

The phrase the devil is in the details was never more true than when applied to the first iteration of the Netherlands Remote Gambling Act (KoA) which came in at nearly 160 pages. While the document was thorough it was felt to be bloated, for example, it contained 1390 references to the term “games of chance”.

Thankfully the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, in consultation with the Minister of Finance and the State Secretary of Public health, Welfare and Sport, has completed a thorough review of the proposal and submitted a much simpler version for consideration.

The revision retains the depth of scope of the original while offering simpler definitions, outlining costs and fees and contains a mere 799 references to “games of chance”.

More Details Highlights of Recommended Act

The second iteration of the proposed KoA has created some clarity for interested operators on what the Netherlands will allow in terms of online gambling and what fees they can expect to pay for the privilege of receiving a local licence.

✓Player and Data Protection:

The Games of Chance decree makes allowance in its licencing structure, server requirements and database administration for both online games of chance and online live dealer games of chance.
The Act requires that licence holders keep accurate gambling data while ensuring customer privacy via control database that uses a “unique designation of each player that is not directly traceable to the identity of the player”.
Player financial tracking outlining player limits, all credits and debits to the account and the nature of any adjustment that exceeds expected limits to aid in the prevention of gambling addiction.
All profile, financial and play data will be made available to the player up to 3 years after they terminate their account.

✓Licencing Application and Amendment Fees

All applicants will pay a processing fee of €48000 regardless of the success of their application.
Amending the name of the permit, any corporate and financial identities and reducing the scope of a licence will cost €500.
Where any of the above changes require a revision of reliability such a review will cost an additional €8000.
Any amendment to a licence that will increase the scope of the games offered by said licence will cost €8000.

✓Recruitment, Advertising and Addiction Prevention Decree

It is the operator’s responsibility to ensure all new sign-ups are legally competent, play only on their own accounts and do not use the said account for the purposes of money laundering.
Players are only legally allowed a single account at an online gambling site.
Operators may not extend player credit or mediate lending money as an enticement to sign up or to continue gambling.
The operator must also protect the player's data from being used by 3rd parties for any purposes.
All gambling account must be terminated immediately upon receiving a request from the player for their account to be closed, this does not, however, limit their access to their history at the casino.
The operator must suspend any account where there is reasonable suspicion of gambling addiction.

✓Legal Jurisdiction

Any and legal disputes under the Dutch Remote Gambling Act will exclusively be governed by Dutch law
Any cases in the regard will appear in the Dutch courts before a local judge regardless of any terms that say otherwise on a licenced operator’s website.

At this point, there is little information on whether or not the KoA will include prescriptive limitations on bet sizes for various games and deposit limitations such as those we’ve seen come out of the UK and Sweden. Given the country’s more objective approach to everything from the use of cannabis to sex work, it is hoped they will allow for self-regulation in favour of governmental control.

Highest Rated Eye on the Prize

As more information surrounding the highly anticipated Dutch Gambling Act come to light we will be sure to keep you in the loop with highlight and our thoughts on the various legislative decisions that are being made.

If you enjoy getting into the detail of legal documents for yourself - specifically looking at corporate ownership, legal entities, contractual obligations and even types of events that can be bet on - you can download the full 160-page pdf from the Netherlands government website.