Michel Groothuizen to take over as KSA Chairman

Michel Groothuizen has been appointed the next Chairman of the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA).

Succeeding René Jansen, who announced last October that he would be stepping down from the Dutch gambling regulator, Groothuizen will take over as Chair on 1 July of this year.

Ric de Rooij, Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice and Security, stated: “With Michel, the KSA will have a new manager with very broad administrative experience and knowledge of the subject in question.

“This is also necessary because developments surrounding gambling do not stand still and will continue to require attention. I look forward to working with Michel.”

 For over four years, Groothuizen served as a member of the main board of the Custodial Institutions Agency (Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen) as Deputy Director General.

Prior to that, he served as general director of the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, and policy director in the administrative department of the Ministry of Justice and Security.

“Old love never dies,” said Groothuizen on his new role. “From 2007 onwards, as policy director, I was responsible, among other things, for the gambling dossier. One of my tasks was to establish the Gaming Authority. 

“We succeeded in 2012. We had already been working on new legislation for a few years to manage online gambling offerings. It took almost 10 years before the law that was supposed to regulate this actually came into effect. I was long gone by then.”

Groothuizen’s appointment comes a few weeks after a public consultation was opened on the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security’s draft proposal for online player deposit limits, as the Dutch market sees an eventful first quarter of 2024.

The goal being to reduce online gambling harm, the Ministry estimates that around 15% to 35% of new players will try to increase their base limit. 

Also this month, Franc Weerwind, Legal Protection Minister of the Netherlands, informed the President of the House of Representatives about his intentions going forward in regards to the upcoming evaluation of the country’s Remote Gambling Act (KOA) taking place in October.

The letter to Martin Bosma is a follow up to Weerwind’s previous alert on failing player protection measures of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) highlighted in his letter from 21 December 2023.