Dutch party proposes to axe online gambling legislation
Christian Democratic Appeal says it will endorse a bill to end online gambling legislation passed in 2021.
The Netherlands.- Just as the Dutch online gambling market is reaching maturity, one political party is proposing to overturn the legislation that made it possible. Ahead of a general election on November 22, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) has pledged to support a private members’ bill that would quash the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) introduced in 2021.
The party claims that the regulated online gambling market, which launched in October 2021, has failed to meet the KOA’s intended primary objective of protecting consumers and vulnerable groups from gambling addiction.
CDA MP Anne Kuik will submit the private members bill to the House of Representatives. It will need cross-party support in order to advance to a review by the Council of State before it can be debated. However, the move still puts more pressure on the government to introduce reforms.
Kuik said: “We are seeing a huge increase in gamblers, 21 per cent of whom are also young adults. This law is a product of the prevailing neoliberal political wind, in which it is not the interest of protecting the vulnerable that comes first but profit and the free market.”
The Dutch government has already announced that it will propose new player protection measures after the KSA called for reforms to grant it more powers for monitoring. However, a recent report recommended imposing mandatory gambling limits in the Netherlands. In July, the Netherlands introduced a ban on untargeted gambling adverts.
