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Members of the Dutch Parliament continue the debate around a potential online gambling advertising ban over target audience concerns.
As reported by Casinonieuws.nl, Dutch Secretary of State for Legal Protection Teun Struycken responded to several questions during a Parliamentary Q&A session regarding research done by media firm De Groene Amsterdammer.
De Groene Amsterdammer suggested that there is currently a high number of online gambling ads circulating in the Netherlands that are “explicitly aimed at young adults”.
The July report predicted that the State Secretary would most likely be faced with ensuing questions, which did eventually happen during last Friday’s House of Representatives meeting.
Struycken, who is a member of the New Social Contract Party (NSC), has been a central figure in the gambling industry since being appointed State Secretary as part of PM Dick Schoof’s cabinet following the last election cycle.
He is tasked with the handling of the upcoming Dutch Remote Gambling Act (KOA) reforms, picking up the work from his predecessor – former Legal Protections Minister Franc Weerwind.
During the Friday session, Michiel van Nispen of the Socialist Party demanded answers from Struycken about a supposed 60% of gambling advertisements reaching young adults – a number present in the De Groene Amsterdammer investigation.
In response, the State Secretary reassured members of the Kamer that his team remains committed to protecting young adults and vulnerable groups from the risks of gambling harm and that this will remain a constant throughout his term.
However, Struycken also denied van Nispen’s statement by commenting: “De Groene Amsterdammer has collected 35,592 ads. The accountability for the survey describes that approximately 2% of the people who saw these 35,592 gambling ads were eighteen to 24 years old.
“In 281 of these ads, which according to the survey were aimed at eighteen to 24-year-olds, 19.2% of the people reached were 18 to 24 years old. I can therefore not place the percentage of 60% mentioned in your question.”
Van Nispen previously submitted a motion that tried to introduce a blanket ban on online gambling advertisements.
“Considering that online gambling companies still advertise in all kinds of areas, especially online, and that many potential gamblers or interested parties are still reached here, where reducing the number of gamblers should be a government objective [the motion] requests the government to ban online advertising for online gambling, for example through online activities such as advertisements.”
However, the proposal, which was submitted back in April, failed to win over the support of Weerwind.
When asked to deliver a comment on the motion, Struycken stated that a detailed response would be presented at a later stage.
Additionally, the State Secretary was also questioned on the link between gambling harm, poverty and suicide. Struycken said: “To what extent addiction (to gambling) leads to an increase in poverty is not known to me and this connection cannot be easily made either.”
However, he also confirmed that a survey analysing problem gambling behaviour among players will be finalised in the first half of 2025, which if successful in finding a strong correlation between the factors, will further aid prevention and treatment efforts.
