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Newsletter - Netherlands Gambling Authority warns operators over player protection and AML failures

KSA Chair to speak at GIH Breakfast Briefing – December 14

Join us on Wednesday December 14 in The Hague for the 2022 Gaming in Holland Breakfast Briefing to hear more about the latest developments regarding the regulated Dutch gambling market.


The GiH Breakfast Briefing has been timed to follow a crucial Parliamentary letter – which is expected in the last week of November – in which the Minister responsible for gambling policy will outline proposals for implementing new advertising and player protection measures.


Netherlands Gambling Authority Chair, René Jansen has confirmed his attendance and will be among the event's speakers.


Other confirmed speakers include:

  • Niels Onkenhout, CEO, Nederlandse Loterij

  • Petra de Ruiter, CEO, Holland Casino

  • Fedor Meerts, Head of Department, Ministry of Justice and Security

  • Justin Franssen, Partner, Kalff Katz & Franssen

Register now: RSVP


While attendance is FREE, please note that places are limited. If the number of registrations exceeds the available space, sponsors and paid GiH Conference attendees will be given priority.


Meet Gaming in Holland @ICE 2023!

ICE London returns on February 7-9, 2023 at ExCeL London.


As always, Gaming in Holland/Gaming in EU will be there, too!


Meet us on Wednesday February 8:

  • 09:30: Gaming in Germany Breakfast

  • 12:30: Gaming in Holland Lunch

  • 16:00: Gaming in Spain Networking Drinks (subject to confirmation)

Save the date!


ACM investigating possible violations of EU competition rules by NLO and Holland Casino

Dutch competition authority ACM has reportedly launched an investigation into possible EU competition rules violations by Nederlandse Loterij (NLO) and Holland Casino, following a complaint by new online licensee Circus.nl.


Circus alleges that NLO and Holland Casino have been allowed to abuse their position as former monopolists to gain an unfair advantage following the opening of the regulated Dutch online market.


Although the specific details of the complaint are currently unknown, it appears likely that an argument is being made that national regulations related to the opening of the online market may have violated EU fair competition rules.

Personalized feedback effective in reducing gambling spend, study among Dutch players finds

Players who received a personalized feedback intervention through email or phone experienced a significant reduction in amount of money deposited, amount of money wagered, number of monetary deposits, and time spent gambling in the 30 days after being contacted, a new study finds.


Operator Nederlandse Loterij provided researchers with access to a secondary dataset comprising tracking data from online casino and sports betting gamblers (N = 2,576) who were contacted either by email or telephone between November 2021 and March 2022 after they showed signs of problematic gambling as identified using behavioral tracking software.


Although the amount of money and time spent gambling decreased after an intervention, gabling frequency did not. Interventions by email were equally effective as interventions conducted by phone.


In related news, the European Gaming and Betting Association recently reported that its members sent over 20 million personalized and targeted safer gambling communications to their customers last year, a 700% yearly increase compared to the previous year.


Upcoming events

  • SLICKS, an advocacy group for (former) gamblers, in cooperation with the Municipality of Amsterdam and Cliëntenbelang Amsterdam, will host the first-ever Amsterdam Gambling & Awareness Congress (AG&AC) on December 15.



Netherlands Gambling Authority warns operators over player protection and AML failures

The Dutch regulator has issued a warning to two operators over their failure to sufficiently comply with the country's Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act – WWFT.


The Netherlands Gambling Authority's investigations began with a market-wide preliminary survey in early 2022. This resulted in further investigations into two (unnamed) licensees.

The Dutch regulator identified several cases in which young adults were able to lose tens of thousands of euros without the operator adequately intervening or launching an investigation into the provenance of these players’ funds as mandated by law.


Specifically, a 21-year-old lost €17,000 between October and December 2021, while a 26-year-old lost almost €114,000 in November 2021 alone.


Another a 23-year-old lost a total of €87,000 between October 2021 and March 2022, while a 29-year-old lost €27,000 in the space of just two weeks, the Dutch regulator said.


The Netherlands Gambling Authority will monitor the two operators to ensure that relevant changes are made to their compliance processes.


Other news

The Dutch central exclusion register CRUKS suffered intermittent outages over the weekend due to a malfunction in the country's national identification number (BSN) database.


Following the approval of the Italian Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies (AAMS), Novomatic has acquiredHBG Group, a leading land-based and online gambling operator in the country.


A new study by the UK Gambling Commission shows that 0.9% of 11–16-year-olds are classed as problem gamblers in Great Britain.


A LeoVegas “top manager” has reportedly been arrested for insider trading in connection with the operator’s acquisition by MGM.


Uefa has launched a new education program to tackle match-fixing issues in the sport.

49% of self-described adult US sport fans plan on betting on the 2022 World Cup, a survey found.


Wynn Resorts’ planned casino in the United Arab Emirates is set to open in 2026.

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