Jansen calls for more powers for Dutch gambling regulator
René Jansen says he has raised the need for clandestine monitoring with the Netherlands’ Minister for Legal Protection.
The Netherlands.- René Jansen, the outgoing chairman of the Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has reiterated his call for more supervisory powers. In a blog post, he said he has taken up the issue of mystery shopping with Franc Weerwind, the Netherlands’ Minister for Legal Protection.
Jansen believes the KSA needs to be able to use clandestine monitoring to more effectively enforce operator duty of care responsibilities. He said such methods would provide “better insight into the techniques that providers use to attract and retain players.”
He wrote the piece in response to criticism of the KSA’s oversight of online operators from the Consumers’ Association and on the TV programme Kassa. He said critics had asked a “very fair question” and noted that KSA inspectors are not currently allowed to make deposits on online gambling sites or participate in gambling itself in order to monitor offerings.
The KSA does have access to data from providers on player interaction, but Jansen said this compromise was “not easy or complete and it is not ideal”, comparing it to searching through a haystack.
Jansen also revealed that the KSA will now focus its enforcement action on “shott hits” by contacting operators immediately after detecting signals about compliance failings. He said the KSA would ask about what happened and what the operator did to try to prevent the failing so that the provider “knows he is under a magnifying glass”.
