Lower House to discuss gambling policy
Tomorrow, the Permanent Committee for Justice and Security of the Dutch Lower House will discuss gambling policy, including the implementation of future marketing restrictions.
The discussions will take place from 15:00 until 18:00 and can be watched live via remote video stream.
Holland Casino officially opens Utrecht venue
On Friday, Holland Casino organized a grand opening ceremony to officially inaugurate its new venue in the city of Utrecht.
Although the venue originally opened in September 2021, Covid-19-related restrictions meant that no official opening ceremony could be conducted.
Over 1,200 guests attended the ceremony party themed around “shine bright like a diamond” and witnessed the official presentation of Petra de Ruiter as the casino operator's new CEO.
In a recent interview, Holland Casino's new CEO called for the introduction of cross-operator deposit limits, as well as a mandatory “aftercare conversation” before players previously registered in CRUKS would be allowed to gamble again.
Survey: Half of the Netherlands’ professional football players bet on football matches
According to a survey conducted by the VVCS – the trade union for professional football players in the Netherlands – a around half of all professional football players in the country bet (occasionally) on football matches.
11% of the respondents admitted to having bet on matches in their own competition, which is not allowed under existing regulations.
On average, respondents bet less than €100 per month. Two out of 217 respondents indicated that their gambling behavior could be seen as potentially problematic.
The survey outcome nuances the widespread image that most professional footballers in the Netherlands gamble heavily. On average, players bet only sporadically and for modest amounts, the VVCS said.
KSA chair hails relationship with local trade associations
Netherlands Gambling Authority chair, René Jansen said the regulator has a good working relationship with Dutch online gambling trade associations NOGA and VNLOK. “They are often our first point of contact if we want to bring something to the industry's attention,” Jansen said.
Jansen made his remarks in a wide-ranging interview with CasinoNieuws which looks back at one year of legal online gambling in the Netherlands.
Jansen also said that the regulator is currently focusing on the topics of advertising and operators’ duty of care.
The full interview is available here.
Danish regulator declares market liberalization a success amid 10-year anniversary
More than 90% of Danes gamble on licensed websites, the country’s regulator has noted as Denmark celebrates a decade since market liberalization.
Prior to liberalization, only 40% of online gambling occurred with operators who possessed a Danish license.
Anders Dorph, Executive Director of Danish regulator Spillemyndigheden, commented: “We are proud that Denmark is one of the countries with the highest share of online gambling with licensed operators. In Europe, we have been surpassed by only a few countries.”
Upcoming events
The following event(s) may be of interest to the GiH community.
The theme of Kindred's 2022 Sustainable Gambling Conference, which is scheduled to take place October 19 in Amsterdam, is “Safer gambling: An honest conversation”.
On November 17, the Juridische Hogeschool Avans & Fontys is organizing a public lecture on sports betting and match-fixing.
KSA: €80m monthly GGR and 85% channelization in first year after market regulation
The Netherlands Gambling Authority has published an update on the licensed online gambling market in the country.
At present, there are 22 licensed operators and at least 1.3m player accounts (July 2022) of which only 563,000 are active. As players can have multiple accounts across several operators, the number of active players is likely to be far lower, although currently unknown.
The average loss per active player account is €153 per month.
Monthly online GGR stands at approximately €81m and has remained largely constant since January 2022. Most revenue comes from online casino, although exact percentages vary depending on the month of the year.
Market channelization is estimated to be 85% on a per-player basis, but only 76% when looking at total online GGR.
There are currently 23,000 individuals registered in CRUKS, the Netherlands’ centra exclusion registry.