Long wait for regulated Dutch online market

Despite the vocal support of Secretary for Security and Justice Klass Dijkhoff, it seems regulated online gambling in the Netherlands isn’t going to happen any time soon.

Enabling legislation, originally expected to have been passed by now, is still pending.

Parliamentarians are still at odds as to who, and how many operators should be allowed to enter the market.

Lobby pressure from local charities who are against the new laws is also coming to bear. Charities fear a regulated online gambling market will erode their funding source…traditional lotteries.

The upshot of all this, says the Nos news agency, is that it is unlikely that that Netherlands will have their proposed new online gambling regulations up running before 2017.

What the MPs and charities seem to be overlooking is that in the absence of a regulated market, a thriving grey market already exists. Players are playing, with upper estimates putting the current market at €800m. Many operators are pay little regard to current laws which supposedly ban online gambling but at 50 years old are horribly inadequate to accurately address the legality of Internet gambling.

The long list of operators who have expressed interest in the Dutch market, described by regulator KSA as ‘high’ and reported by the Telegraaf at over 200, will have a wait a little longer to get a license. For some, it may be a case of the longer the better.

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