The Dutch National Information Centre for Gambling Players (Slicks) has set up a new support hub for problem gambling victims in Amsterdam.
This comes as part of a new pilot project funded by the Addiction Prevention Fund (VPF), exploring the benefits of a localised targeting support strategy.
VPF is managed by the Netherlands’ gambling authority Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), and was set up as a result of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) that kickstarted the Dutch online gambling market back in 2021.
The fund has several spending goals, one of which is the research of gambling harm prevention projects.
One of the projects supported by VPF in 2024 was a grant competition launched by Dutch healthcare researcher ZonMw as part of its 2023-2029 “Prevention of Gambling Addiction” programme.
As per the pilot in Amsterdam, local residents experiencing problem gambling will be able to visit a walk-in facility on Keizersgracht city canal. There, they’ll be able to get advised on available support tools like individual guidance programs, prevention workshops, and awareness sessions.
The campaign will run for a year, after which an evaluation will be made in January 2026 on whether the desired goals have been achieved – potentially leading to the project’s expansion to other cities with large populations of problem gamblers.