Thank you for attending the 2024 GiH Conference!
If you attended last week's Gaming in Holland Conference, we hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did!
In case you missed it, photos of the event are available here.
Outgoing KSA Chair, René Jansen warned in his keynote speech of a new period of political uncertainty for the regulated gambling sector. Additionally, Jansen announced a new public awareness campaign aimed at young adults to warn them of the risks associated with problematic gambling behavior.
The Gaming in Holland LIVE conference special by the Gambling Files podcast is now also available. The live podcast features Frank Kastelijns, CEO of Circus Casino NL, as well as Fintan Costello and Jon Bruford.
Videos of select sessions will be shared in the coming weeks!
Ministry of Justice & Security expects to introduce new RG rules in October
The Ministry of Justice and Security expects its previously announced player protection rules to enter into force on October 1, 2024, following official publication of the new regulations on (or before) July 1. This was announced at last week's Gaming in Holland Conference by Fedor Meerts, Department Head Integrity & Gambling at the Ministry of Justice and Security.
The Ministry's new RG rules will supplement the Netherlands Gambling Authority's player protection rules that partially came into effect earlier this month, with the remainder of the regulator's player protection rules entering into force from October 1 as well.
An earlier draft version of the Ministry's RG rules stipulated mandatory personal contact in case of player deposits of more than €350 (or €150 for players aged 18-23). The draft version also included rules on the web or app environment in which players set their personal limits and mandatory reminders on money and time spent.
Dutch district courts announce intention to ask Supreme Court for guidance in player claim cases
The District Courts of Amsterdam and Northern Holland have delivered interim judgments in two separate cases regarding players seeking reimbursement of losses suffered while playing with unlicensed online operators.
The interim judgements request that the Supreme Court of the Netherlands provide guidance on the question whether agreements between players and unlicensed
Ministry of Justice & Security publishes gambling prevalence study
The Ministry of Justice and Security has published a study measuring participation in various games of chance by Dutch consumers. The study is intended to function as a benchmark, allowing close monitoring of the gambling prevalence in the Netherlands.
The study found that 65% of the inhabitants of the Netherlands aged 16 or older participated at least once in the past year in a game of chance (including lotteries); 31% participated in a land-based game (lotteries excluded), while 10% gambled online.
The study further found that 82% of players (lottery-only players excluded) can be classified as non-problem players, 10% are classified as low-risk players, 5% as medium-risk players, and 3% as high-risk players.
Netherlands Gambling Authority moves to collect conditional penalty payments issued to L.C.S. Limited and Blue High House S.A.
The Netherlands Gambling Authority has decided to convert combined conditional penalty payments of €294,000 issued against L.C.S. Limited and Blue High House S.A. into permanent fines for failure to terminate their respective illegal offerings in the country.
The conditional penalty payment issued to L.C.S. dates to 2022. The conditional penalty payment was later followed by an additional fixed fine of €2,074,000 in 2023.
Blue High House was issued its conditional penalty payment in October 2023.
Upcoming events
The following event(s) may be of interest to the GiH community.
The trade show iGB L!ve returns to Amsterdam from July 16-19.
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.
The 2024 Gaming in Germany Conference returns to Berlin on November 5, 2024. Save the date!
New government takes shape: NSC or PVV to oversee gambling policy
Yesterday, the incoming Dutch coalition government announced it had reached an agreement on the allocation of ministerial posts among the participating political groups.
Although the exact allocation has not been announced, it is nonetheless clear that either a representative of NSC (a party in favor of reversing the recent legalization of online gambling) or a representative of gambling-friendly PVV will be tasked with overseeing gambling policy.
Although there have been reports that NSC will become responsible for gambling policy – which would certainly be bad news for the sector – this has not yet been confirmed.
In fact, we would argue that it is at least equally probable that gambling policy will end up becoming a PVV responsibility – although we will likely not know for certain until Friday.
Our hopefully not unwarranted optimism is based on the cabinet posts (newly) allocated to the Ministry of Justice and Security.
At present, the following cabinet members are heading the Ministry of Justice and Security:
Minister of Justice
Minister (without portfolio) for Legal Protection (who oversees gambling policy)
State Secretary for Asylum and Migration
Under the new government, this will reportedly change as follows:
Minister of Justice (VVD)
State Secretary for Legal Protection (NSC)
State Secretary of Justice and Security (PVV)
Although NSC will almost certainly supply the State Secretary for Legal Protection, there will be one extra (compared to the current situation) state secretary whose responsibilities have not yet been defined. (Asylum and Migration will reportedly become a separate, independent Ministry.)
Since gambling policy does not appear too closely related to what is customary understood as belonging to the area of legal protection (i.e., the judiciary, legal aid, legal security, legal sanctions, the prison system, etc.), it would not seem too far-fetched to assume that gambling will instead become the responsibility of the yet unnamed PVV state secretary.
If so, it would certainly be good news for the sector.
Civil Service warned incoming government of negative consequences of proposed gambling tax increase
As reported earlier, the incoming government has proposed to increase the gambling tax rate from 30.5% to 37.8% of GGR.
A civil service analysis of the proposal found that the tax increase would have a severely negative impact on Holland Casino's already limited profitability; that lottery remittances to charities, good causes, and sports would be negatively affected; and that there would be unspecified “significant indirect consequences” for gambling policy in general.
Despite these warnings, the incoming government decided to stick with the proposed tax increase.
Other news
CasinoNieuws has published an interview with Arjan van 't Veer, Secretary General of European Lotteries (EL) and former Director of Corporate Affairs at Nederlandse Loterij.
The Dutch Lower House has passed a bill restricting telemarketers from contacting existing and previous customers. Lotteries, however, were excluded from this restriction due to a successful amendment submitted by MP Wytske Postma (NSC).
GiG Media has joined the QMRA affiliate quality mark.
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