Ahead of early elections, political parties take up positions on (online) gambling
The Netherlands will hold early elections on November 22. Several parties have already published concept versions of their policy latforms that include proposals that would impact the Dutch regulated sector.
Left-wing combination GL/PvdA proposes a weekly deposit limit of €200, stricter addiction prevention regulations, and a uniform mandatory remittance percentage for all licensed lotteries, including the Dutch State Lottery.
In a remarkable show of pettiness, farmers’ party BBB proposes to do away with private lotteries entirely. Although BBB claims that this policy would protect players from gambling addiction, the real (and obvious) reason is that Dutch private lottery operators Postcode Loterij and Vriendenloterij habitually support animal welfare and environmental protection organizations with their charitable remittances.
Furthermore, during a recent parliamentary question time on operators’ duty of care (more on this below) MPs representing CU, CDA, and SP once again reiterated their position that the legalization of online gambling in the Netherlands should be rolled back.
In the meantime, the Permanent Committee for Justice and Security of the Dutch Lower House decided that gambling policy would not be designated as a controversial topic, meaning that debates and policy proposals regarding this issue will not be postponed until a new government has been formed.
Meet us at the SBC Summit Barcelona!
If you are visiting the SBC Summit Barcelona, which takes place September 19-21, don't forget to stop by the Gaming in EU stand, ME130, where you will be able to get a copy of the latest issue of our Gaming in Germany Magazine, as well as the latest information on our upcoming Gaming in Germany, Gaming in Spain, and Gaming in Holland Conferences.
With 15,000 industry professionals expected to attend, the SBC Summit will feature 450 speakers and over 350 exhibitors.
Netherlands Gambling Authority issues binding instructions to licensed operators over AML rule violations
The Netherlands Gambling Authority has issued binding instructions to licensed operators Betent and Play North to improve their AML monitoring procedures.
In both cases, the regulator found that players were able to deposit tens of thousands of euros in a short amount of time without adequate follow-up from the operators to determine the origin of these funds.
All flagged rule violations occurred in 2022.
In related news, the Dutch regulator also announced the launch of a market-wide investigation into prohibited cashback bonuses following claims of such unauthorized promotions being offered in the country.
Upcoming events
The following event(s) may be of interest to the GiH community.
The 2023 Gaming in Germany Conference has been scheduled to take place October 16, 2023, in Berlin. Benjamin Schwanke, Co-Chair of Germany federal gambling regulator, GGL, will be the event's keynote speaker.
An estimated 15,000 visitors will attend the SBC Summit Barcelona, which is scheduled to take place September 19-21. The event will feature 450 speakers and over 350 exhibitors.
Netherlands Gambling Authority announces policy changes to remedy player monitoring shortcomings
A study investigating the duty of care exhibited by online gambling licensees has found that the inability of some operators to monitor gambling behavior in real-time may put certain players at risk of suffering “major damage.”
The study, which was carried out by the Netherlands Gambling Authority, analyzed the player monitoring procedures at ten online (unnamed) gaming licensees, and found the following shortcomings:
Some operators took up to twenty days to gather data and assign a corresponding risk score to newly registered players. As a result of this, existing problem players who signed up with these operators could gamble excessively for several weeks before they were flagged.
In some cases, it took more than a day before operators noticed that players exceeded had “hard” boundaries (used as fallback in addition to individual risk scores), for instance regarding deposits or losses.
In some urgent cases, operators were unable to immediately intervene at night or during weekends due to a lack of available staff.
Based on the study's findings, the Dutch regulator announced that it would seek to further adjust its responsible gambling framework, including a strengthening of the obligation for real-time player monitoring, supplementing the existing rules on the indicators that must be used to assess player behavior, and the mandatory blocking of accounts until necessary interventions have taken place.
Trade associations NOGA and VNLOK welcomed the recommendations, including the introduction of a more uniform, rules-based regulatory framework.
Other news
Dutch broadcaster BNN/VARA has created a four-part series titled “Addicted to losing” on gambling addiction. The first episode will be available from September 21.
Sam Depoortere has left his position as Business Director TOTO at Nederlandse Loterij to join OpenBet as VP of Product.
DraftKings apologized Monday after using the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to entice people to bet on baseball and football games on the anniversary of the tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people.
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