Dutch Senate To Start Debating Remote Gaming Bill

In 2014, the Netherlands introduced its Remote Gaming Bill designed to pave the way for international online gaming operators to offer their products in the country. Despite the bill passing in the House of Representatives back in 2016, however, its has remained tied up in the Senate, the upper house of the Dutch legislature, ever since.

Nevertheless, there is fresh hope that a new resolution will soon be found for the situation after Sander Dekker, Minister for Legal Protection of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, posted a statement clarifying intended changes that are to be made to the Remote Gaming Bill in order to help push forward legalization. This include setting up a more liberal market that welcomes operators from other countries, and introducing legislation to address potential gambling addiction concerns.

The Senate is set to begin reviewing the proposed legislation, and all being well, the Remote Gaming Bill is expected to pass a vote by July 2019.

Fighting Gambling Addiction

Following Minister Sander Dekker’s announcement, the Ministry of Justice and Security has since confirmed that the government is currently working towards establishing a viable and sustainable online gambling framework. High up on their agenda is ensuring sufficient checks are in place to limit any potential addiction harm caused to Dutch people from online gambling, particularly young people, and that licensed operators carry out their duty of care to protect their customers from “illegal and unsafe offers.”

Other requirements include licensed gambling operators opening offices in the Netherlands and being placed under direct control of the country’ gambling regulator, as well as operators appointing a representative who will help enforce addiction preventative measures.

Games of Chance vs Skill

The aim of the Remote Gaming Bill is to prepare the way for legal and regulated online gambling in the Netherlands, with the products considered including casino games, poker, and sports betting. Nevertheless, Sander Dekker’s is insisting that a clear distinction be made between skill-based games and those of chance in which an individual’s performance is unrelated to their ability at a given game.

According to Dekker’s statement, hundreds of thousand of Dutch residents are currently playing online games of chance in the country without any regulatory protection in place, and as a translated extract of his statement explains:

“In recent years, the boundary between games and online gambling has become increasingly blurred. The risk increases that especially young people are encouraged to participate. To counter this, the government wants to separate the range of games and games of chance more strictly. Recruitment and advertising activities for games of chance through games are further limited. New games of chance must not have a suction effect on vulnerable groups. That is why gambling products must be subjected to a risk analysis for addiction before they enter the market. This also looks at the recruitment and advertising activities around these products.”

It would appear that part of his statement refers to free-to-play gambling sites, which have increasingly attracted controversy over the years as more and more operators use them to encourage real money sales of their in-game products. This has developed into a contentious issue for regulators across the globe as many of these free-to-play sites are not considered gambling and so are frequented by children. Furthermore, minors are then often subjected to advertising from real-money gambling sites, representing a clear red line for legislators.

Privatize Holland Casino

Dekker also calls for the state owned Holland Casino, operator of 14 land-based casinos in the country, be privatized, thus allowing the Netherlands to open up its gambling market in a “controlled manner.” The minister’s sentiment mirrors those expressed by the House of Representatives who approved issues related to the matter in the Remote Gaming Bill it passed early last year. He is now hoping that a similar response to the privatization of Holland Casino will soon be provided by the Dutch Senate. According to estimates, such a move would net the country’s government over €1 billion after implementation.