Possible postponement of Dutch Online Gambling Regulations

On Thursday 18 June, the continued written consultation took place with the Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker and the standing committee for Justice and Security. The MP’s tabled a number of motions and the Dutch Minister commented on them. There the minister made a remarkable statement about the expected date of opening of the online gambling market in the Netherlands with the Remote Gambling Act, but also about the cooling off period of penalized casinos.

Possible few months delay of Remote Gambling Act

During the meeting serveral motions were proposed. In motion 82, MP van Nispen stated that preparations for the online gambling market had suffered some delays, partly as a result of the COVID-19 measures. In a response Dutch Minister Dekker indicated the targetdate for opening the Dutch Gambling market is January 2021. But then the novel coronavirus COVID-19 broke out in early 2020. Since then land-based casino’s say many guests have switched to illegal gambling providers and that this could have been prevented with the Remote Gambling Act. On the other hand, there are concerns among interested parties about meeting licence obligations in time. The Ministry of Security & Justice has also been very busy with many things recently. As a result, the Minister said he does not exclude that this will lead to a slight delay. In a further clarification Dekker described the delay “about a few months”.

Extension of cooling period for penalized operators

Penalized operators currently face a two year cooling off period. Motion 83 requests the government to extend the cooling-off period by a proportional period if the market opening is postponed. Minister Dekker said he could live with a limited extension, provided that the delay in the Remote Gambling Act also remains limited. In other words, letting the cooling-off period move with the effective date. If the current cooling-off period of 2 years is maintained, but the Remote Gambling Act will face a delay, this would mean that many more penalized operators are ready at the start of the online gambling market. To prevent this, the motion will be forwarded to the House of Representatives, which will have to approve the motion in a vote.

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