Dutch gambling regulator announces funding boost for prevention programme
The KSA says more knowledge is needed about the prevention and treatment of problems.
The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has announced that its Prevention of Gambling Addiction programme with health research organisation ZonMw will be continued. It said more knowledge is needed about the prevention and treatment of problems and damage caused by gambling.
The regulator’s chair Michel Groothuizen and ZonMw managing director Véronique Timmerhuis met yesterday (Thursday) to officially launch the follow-up Prevention of Gambling Addiction 2025 – 2030 programme. The initiative will receive a new funding boost of €21m to finance independent research focusing on broad knowledge development about the prevention and treatment of gambling-related harm and problems.
First launched in 2022 after the regulation of online gambling in the Netherlands in 2021, the programme is developed around five work packages: Vulnerable players, game characteristics and playing behaviour; Prediction, risk factors, early detection and prevention; Diagnostics, intervention and treatment; Experiential expertise, participation and the social domain; Overarching knowledge infrastructure
In the first subsidy round for the new phase, ZonMw can fund three long-term thematic consortia. In the coming years, it will also focus on knowledge in practice and the stimulation of researchers and practitioners. Finally, it will aim to translate current issues and policy priorities from the KSA into field assignments.
Existing projects have been given a stage at the international conference Current Advances in Gambling Research, which was held in Amsterdam last year. The first projects will deliver their results in the coming year. The funding of the programme comes from the Addiction Prevention Fund, which is financed by a levy on gambling and managed by the KSA.
Groothuizen said: “The protection of players is an important priority for the KSA. By continuing this programme, we are joining forces to gain more necessary knowledge on this subject, so that we can prevent gambling damage as much as possible.”
Timmerhuis said: ‘It is good that this program aimed at gambling addiction is being continued. A lot of knowledge development is still needed to arrive at effective approaches, and to ensure that these approaches land well in practice. ZonMw can also contribute expertise from other mental health domains and thus play a good connecting role. Step by step, we are working on knowledge to better help people with addiction in the future.’
This week, proposed Dutch gambling reforms were thrown into doubt by the resignation of Teun Struycken as legal protections secretary over the government’s veto on sanctions against Israel.
Struycken’s move comes ahead of an early general election, which was called for October following the collapse of the four-way VVD, PVV, BBB and NSC coalition government in June. Struycken, a member of the NSC, was appointed in July 2024 and had retained his position amid the turmoil.
