Dutch court rules itself competent to judge player claim against Malta-based operator
The Noord-Holland district court has ruled that it is competent to judge a player claim against Malta-based operator N1 Interactive.
Although legal disputes usually need to be brought in the jurisdiction where the defendant is located, EU law makes an exception for consumer claims. N1 Interactive unsuccessfully argued that this exception should not be applicable in this case.
N1 Interactive has appealed against the decision.
Dutch court sides with Netherlands Gambling Authority over disclosure of fine issued to Malta-based operator
Malta-based operator LCS Limited failed to convince a Dutch preliminary relief judge that public disclosure of the fine it was handed by the Dutch gambling regulator would have a disproportionate impact on its reputation.
According to the ruling, the public interest in disclosing such sanctions outweighs the possible harm suffered by the operator.
Superbowl 58 sets new record for sports betting
Sunday night's Super Bowl 58 between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers broke sports betting records. Ahead of the event, the American Gaming Association predicted that 68 million Americans would bet $23.1bn on the event.
Although no final numbers have yet been published, GeoComply Solutions, a Canadian company that monitors geolocation data for several major online sportsbooks in the United States, said that in the minutes before kickoff, its systems recorded "a massive spike in traffic," with nearly 15,000 transactions per second. Total betting volumes were up 22% y-o-y.
Meanwhile, the Nevada Gaming Control Board announced that the state's sportsbooks received more than $185 million in wagers, which marks both a new record and a $32 million uptick compared to the previous year.
Get ready for the 2024 Online Casino of the Year Awards
After a successful 2023 edition, CasinoNieuws and OneTime are once again organizing the Online Casino of the Year competition to determine which Netherlands-licensed operators are best in class.
Like last year, there will be several award categories, including best casino, best live casino, best bookmaker, and many more. The outcome of the competition will be jointly determined by a public vote and a professional jury.
Voting starts June 1 and runs until July 1.
The award ceremony will take place July 17.
Upcoming events
The following event(s) may be of interest to the GiH community.
Kindred's annual Sustainable Gambling Conference will be held March 20, 2024, at the Kia Oval in London.
The 2024 Casino Operations Summit, which focuses on land-based casino operations, will take place April 23-25 in Amsterdam.
The 14th European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues, organized by the European Association for the Study of Gambling (EASG), will be held September 10-13, 2024, in Rome, Italy.
Dutch Lower House adopts motion on cross-operator deposit limits
On February 13, the Dutch Lower House adopted a motion proposed by MP Mirjam Bikker (CU) calling on the Dutch government to introduce fixed cross-operator deposit limits before the summer.
Contrary to draft proposals that were previously announced by the Ministry of Justice & Security, the proposed motion would not allow for the deposit limits to be increased following an affordability check.
Leaving aside the significant technical challenges of introducing cross-operator deposit limits, it is also virtually certain that the introduction of such limits would require new primary legislation. As such, the proposed timeline for implementing these limits is obviously unfeasible – which is not something that the motion's sponsors could have been unaware of.
A second motion proposed by MP Michiel van Nispen (SP) calling on the government to crack down and enforce harsh penalties – up to and including the revocation of licenses – on operators who fail to adequately protect players was also adopted.
As the current regulatory framework already allows for such penalties, it is unclear what practical effect this motion is supposed to have.
Finally, a third motion, calling for a full ban on advertising for online gambling services, failed to achieve a majority.
The recently adopted motions on cross-operator deposit limits and a harsher regulatory crackdown will set the stage for the upcoming parliamentary debate by the Permanent Committee for Justice and Security on (online) gambling that is scheduled for March 7.
In fact, these motions appear primarily designed to extract related and perhaps somewhat less far-reaching commitments from the Minister for Legal Protection, who will then appear before this Committee.
Other news
Bet365 has launched its own online bingo offering in the Netherlands.
French operator Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU), will become the first external brand outside of the Flutter Group to use Flutter’s B2B Sportsbook Platform.
Catena Media registered a 41% decrease in revenue in its full-year 2023 results, due to significant setbacks in its core US market.