“The only consequence of this ban announced in the coalition agreement will be that the players will be lured away from the legal market even more than now.”
Michel Groothuizen, the new Chairman of the Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has challenged proposed gambling reforms put forward by the newly formed Jetten I Cabinet.
Whilst welcoming most of what the new cabinet said on gambling, Groothuizen is critical of the ‘complete advertising ban’ being put forward and the need to investigate a limitation on the number of licenses for online gambling sites.
Groothuizen said: “The coalition agreement promises to impose a complete advertising ban on online gambling and to further investigate a limitation of the number of licenses for online gambling sites. Fortunately, in the public domain, in the sports world and on TV, advertisements from online providers are now a thing of the past. At Ksa, we also keep a close eye on this. To be honest, the last year has really been considerably calmer than the period before. We hardly see excesses in advertising on the licensed market anymore. At the moment, competition for the favor of the gambler mainly takes place on social media: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are full of gambling advertising. However, the lion’s share comes from illegal parties. To colour that a bit: in the past period, there have been more than 60,000 advertisements aimed at the Dutch audience on Facebook and Instagram every month. Less than 2,000 of them come from legal online providers.
“A ban on online advertising only affects the legal offer,” he added. “Our people will do everything they can to combat illegal advertising as well, but in the current circumstances, we cannot be 100% successful in this. Perhaps we can enforce greater responsibility on the tech companies through the Digital Services Act, but that will be a long-term process. The illegal parties will not care much about this, and as long as large tech companies continue to allow these ads or do not actively remove them of their own accord, the only consequence of this ban announced in the coalition agreement will be that the players will be lured away from the legal market even more than now. After all, they will only encounter illegal providers online. That does not seem to me to be the intended goal of the new cabinet.
“This legally licensed market is not a risk-free area and gambling addiction and other gambling damage can also occur there. But on the legal market, we do have a number of guardrails and it is much more difficult for players to lose excessive amounts of money in a short period of time. Compliance with the duty of care did not and does not happen by itself. In recent years, we have also addressed numerous parties about this and sometimes imposed high fines, but things are now going a lot better.
Groothuizen added: “Then my other point of doubt about the coalition agreement: limiting the number of permit holders. I have few expectations of the research into this in advance. We have about thirty legal online providers in the Netherlands. In addition, several hundred licensed gambling halls. Some products have a monopoly, such as in the case of Holland Casino, which is the only one allowed to offer the highest-risk casino games with high stakes. As a government, we can ban products and services altogether or allow them under certain conditions. And those conditions can and (when it comes to gambling) must also be strict and strictly enforced. A monopoly is already quite a complicated construction, but it is possible. However, maximizing the number of providers in a market with parties that meet all the conditions and that offer products or services that also fit within the rules seems to me to be a legally difficult path, with a dubious usefulness. There is no reason to assume that there will be less advertising in a market with five providers than if there are 25, or that the number of players will decrease. If we as a society do not want to allow certain products offered, we must ban them. Admitting provider X and Y and not provider Z with the same product on numerical grounds is not explainable for us as a licensing authority.
“Despite these critical comments, I look forward to working with the new cabinet with enthusiasm. On the main goals, protecting the vulnerable and combating illegality, there is no light whatsoever between the goals of the cabinet and those of us as a supervisor. We wish the new ministers a lot of wisdom on the gaming file, and are ready to get to work together.”
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“The only consequence of this ban announced in the coalition agreement will be that the players will be lured away from the legal market even more than now.” Michel Groothuizen, the new Chairman of the Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has challenged proposed gambling reforms put forward by the newly formed Jetten I Cabinet. Whilst…
The post New KSA Chairman Michel Groothuizen promises to fight against a complete online gaming ad ban appeared first on G3 Newswire.