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Launch of Netherland’s regulated virtual gambling market has been postponed by six months as the government requires more time to frame secondary gambling legislation. The launch has been delayed till July 1, 2021.
Netherlands Minister of Justice and Security, Sander Dekker, updated the lower house of parliament of the country about the delay in making modifications to the Remote Gambling Act (RGA). He said that due to these amendments, the RGA would come into effect on January 1, 2021, delay of six months from the proposed launch date. As the Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), will be following the RGA, it will start receiving applications for the online license only after the enactment of RGA. KSA made it clear that after receiving the applications, it would take another six months to scrutinize them, so the market launch cannot be expected before July 1, 2021.
Dekker spoke about how the amendments were being made to strengthen the existing regulations. He said the KSA will be checking the age-verification procedures of prospective online licensees from now on, as it has been found that at least until early 2018, underage clients could freely access the state-owned Nederlandse Loterij’s Toto sports gambling product without any restriction. After this came to notice, steps have been taken to upgrade the age-verification system of Nederlandse Loterij. Dekker has warned all the future and existing online licensees to upgrade their systems to make it tough for the underaged to gamble online. If not done so, they would have to face stringent action, which might even lead to the cancellation of their license or rejection of their application for a license.
Sander Dekker was supportive of gambling advertising, as against the view of some legislators to completely ban it. However, he did say that existing advertorial rules will be modified to make sure that it did not have a negative impact on society.
