SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
A draft bill has been proposed by the Netherlands’ Christen Unie (CU) and the The Socialist Party (SP) to protect young people from gambling.
The private members’ bill was put forward by the leaders of both parties, Michiel van Nispen (SP) and Mirjam Bikker (CU), who used the recent market findings of the Scientific Research and Data Center (WODC) as the basis for the joint proposal.
WODC took on the task of evaluating the Remote Gambling Act (KOA Act) legislative framework, which launched the Netherlands’ regulated online gambling market in 2021.
Taking some factors into consideration, such as the framework’s relatively short life span and the ongoing legislative reforms, WODC’s evaluation concluded that the adopted policies are yet to significantly contribute to an improvement in responsible gambling practices.
The report read: “Although the policy has led to a reliable offer and to a degree of verifiability and control that is greater than with the unlicensed offer, we do not yet believe that it is a responsible offer.
“The policy has also led to a large group of new players, including many young adults. Based on the policy and the current implementation practice, it can be expected…damage will occur as a result of the policy, particularly in this group. This does not only concern financial damage, but potentially also great personal suffering as a result.”
As such, the CU and SP’s joint proposal calls for direct and stricter gambling protection measures to be imposed on KOA-licensed operators.
“Gambling has bad consequences for all young people in the Netherlands. The gambling industry is dangerous and addictive. We need to protect our young people better and we can’t wait. That is why we now need to intervene and present a law that protects them more,” Bikker said.
Key points in the proposal include almost a complete blanket ban on gambling advertisements, compulsory limits on deposits and play time for online casino games, a full ban on credit card gambling, swift optimisation of the national self-exclusion CRUKS scheme, more funds paid by operators into gambling-related healthcare programs, and bigger responsibilities towards player data protection.
Van Nispen added: “We need to tighten the screws on gambling companies. Because the freedom of gambling companies now leads to a lot of misery for individuals and great social damage.”
CU and SP are currently part of the opposition in the Dutch Parliament led by PM Dick Schoof, who appointed Teun Struycken as the Secretary of State for Legal Protection – the most key figure in the aforementioned KOA reforms.
Struycken has been previously pressed by van Nispen on the prominence of gambling adverts finding their way to the eyes of younger audiences, with 60% of all gambling advertisements reaching young adults, according to stats cited by the SP Minister.
This is mainly done through online channels, as KOA amendments applied in July 2023 banned all gambling adverts on TV, radio, print, and in public spaces. A recent look at the Dutch TV advertising market shows that demand for gambling ads in that space has significantly declined.
The CU-SP reformist duo also landed a big victory earlier this year when they gained some ground in their push to ban gambling advertisements after Dutch MPs supported one of van Nispen’s motions against online gambling ads.
