The government of Netherlands felt it was necessary to bring an updated gambling law into action. This was even presented to the European Commission so that it could give its blessing. The main reasons for the new law are primarily the new licensing provisions and the protection of players.
As the Dutch government presented on its own website, the main objectives of the new law are:
Minimising fraud and crime
Gambling addiction prevention
Player protectionHow are these goals to be achieved in detail? The government was creatively active here and has decided, among other things, to do the following: In future, advertising for games of chance should no longer be made by prominent people. Athletes and influencers should also no longer be used for such advertising measures.
The regulations that online casinos must observe could constitute a violation of data protection. In the future, not only should the player’s complete personal data be stored, but also their winnings and deposit amounts. Added to this is the date, time and total playing time per session.
In comparison, it seems logical for the online casinos to save a voluntary ban on players. It would make even more sense if this data were stored in a central register. If these could be accessed by all online casinos, player protection would be increased significantly. Every new registration of a player could be specifically questioned in order to withhold another risk from the player.
With regard to a central register, gambling halls have already spoken on site. Should it indeed come to a central register, local casinos and amusement arcades would also have to participate. These would have to check when each player joins whether he has excluded himself. If that were the case, he would not be allowed to enter the arcades or at least not play. Such a check of every player is associated with considerable effort, which is at the expense of the casino operator.
Now that the new gaming law contains new specifications for the issuing of licenses, this law primarily affects new licenses. Of course, it could also affect an online casino whose license is expiring and is waiting for an extension of the license. To what extent the regulations will be changed has not yet been published.
However, the new law affects a new license in a completely different way: The law was originally supposed to have been passed long ago. However, due to lengthy discussions, this situation has dragged on. Therefore, the new law was only presented to the European Commission in August 2020. When this has time to decide on the new law is not certain at the moment. However, it could therefore happen that new licenses can only be granted after August 2021. Originally it was planned that the new gaming law would come into effect in January 2021. In this case, fresh licenses would have been possible as early as July 2020.
Aside from the timing of new licenses, there are other issues. The subsidiary of the gambling operator Kindred Group, Trannel International, said: In their opinion, only online casinos that already have a license would benefit from the new law. Everyone else would have to deal with such strict rules that a new license is hardly possible. The company also expressed this opinion to the highest administrative court in the Netherlands: the State Council. This court found the plaintiff right, which most likely also led to the delay.
Online casinos have basically been reacting independently to the above-mentioned problem for years, in particular to player protection. For this reason, all casinos point out responsible gaming on their pages. If you don’t stick to it or are afraid of losing on the next round of roulette, you can have yourself blocked. However, this block only applies to the respective online casino. A milder form is setting a deposit limit. This opportunity is also offered by many online casinos. Last but not least, there are plenty of no deposit bonuses or free spins that are completely free.
Furthermore, it should not be underestimated that only people of legal age are allowed to register at an online casino. If all these factors are considered, the question arises why there should be a new, strict gambling law at all. Who is still surprised that most gambling operators are against new laws?