Dutch government to propose new player protection rules
The Dutch gambling regulator had already made the case for legislative changes.
The Netherlands.- The Dutch government is to act on the national gambling regulator KSA’s calls for gambling legislation to be updated. The KSA had pushed for legislative changes to improve player protection.
Franc Weerwind, the Netherlands’ minister for legal protection, has now confirmed that the government agrees that the current player protection measures are flawed. Responding to questions in parliament, he said the government intends to propose new rules early next year in a bid to improve addiction prevention.
The KSA’s report into online gambling operators’ duty of care identified issues with consistent monitoring. Weerwind told the Dutch parliament that he was committed to amending the current rules early in the year, adding that an evaluation of the Remote Gambling Act in 2024 will also look into the effectiveness of addiction prevention in the law, which came into effect in 2021 and allowed the regulated online gambling market to open in October of that year.
He said: “It is too early to judge the entire approach as successful or unsuccessful. I will closely monitor the effects of the various activities. I am committed to combating gambling addiction, but I do not consider it realistic to prevent addiction altogether.”
Concerns about young gamblers
Weerwind was answering questions submitted by the D66 and the Party for the Animals (PvdD) on measures to safeguard vulnerable groups of people. They noted that in July, 23 per cent of the 45,787 people registered on the Netherlands’ self-exclusion scheme, Cruks, were aged under 25.
The KSA is planning a campaign aimed at young adults this autumn to raise awareness of Cruks. It has also recently announced funding for the Bright at School programme, an addiction prevention initiative for schools created by the Trimbos Institute. The Trimbos Institute will use the new funding to add gambling education to Bright at School’s curriculum, including training on how to identify problem gambling behaviour in young people.
