The head of the Netherlands’ gambling regulator, Michael Groothuizen, has criticised new government proposals to ban online gambling advertising, arguing such a move would drive players to black market sites.
The Netherlands’ new coalition government, fronted by Prime Minister Rob Jetten, recently published a coalition agreement document on its plans through to 2030, which included a section covering “drugs, gambling and sex work”.
In this chapter on the ‘vice’ industries, the new coalition promised a blanket ban on online ads for gambling and a restriction on the number of licences handed out to operators, suggestions which Groothuizen described as “unhelpful”.
The KSA chair said while it was a positive advertising for sites had been prohibited in the public domain, in sports and on TV, any law banning the ads completely would be detrimental to players.
Groothuizen pointed out that of the 60,000 gambling ads targeted at Dutch Instagram and Facebook users every month, only 2,000 (3.3%) came from legitimate operators.
He added: “A ban on online advertising will only affect legal advertising. Our people will do everything in their power to combat illegal advertising as well, but under the current circumstances, we cannot be 100% successful.
“We may be able to enforce greater responsibility on tech companies through the Digital Services Act, but that will be a long-term process.
“The illegal parties will pay little attention to this and, as long as large tech companies continue to allow these advertisements or do not actively remove them on their own initiative, the only consequence of this ban announced in the coalition agreement will be that players will be lured away from the legal market even more than now.
“After all, they will then only encounter illegal providers online. That does not seem to me to be the intended goal of the new cabinet.”
Last year, Hard Rock Casino NL CEO Cristiano Blanco made a similar argument relating to the consequences of a blanket ad ban.
A prohibition on sponsorships deals with athletes, teams or competitions came into effect in the Netherlands last July.
In his statement, Groothuizen also questioned the necessity of a cap on the number of licensed providers, suggesting such a rule would have no effect on either the volume of players or of adverts.
He added: “However, capping the number of providers in a market with parties that meet all the conditions and offer products or services that also comply with the regulations seems to me a legally difficult path, with questionable utility.
“There is no reason to assume there will be less advertising in a market with five providers than with 25, or that the number of players will decrease.
“If we as a society do not want to allow certain products offered, we must prohibit them.
“Allowing provider X and Y and not provider Z with the same product on numerical grounds is inexplicable to us as the licensing authority.”
The post KSA head says online ad ban would only help the black market first appeared on EGR Intel.
The newly elected Dutch coalition government has set its sights on a blanket ban for online advertising, which Michael Groothuizen argues would cause players to be “lured away from the legal market”
The post KSA head says online ad ban would only help the black market first appeared on EGR Intel.