KSA takes player protection recommendations to Dutch Ministry of Justice

The Dutch gambling regulator is urging that the government make legislative and regulatory amendments.

The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) intends to make recommendations for legislative and regulatory amendments on player protection to the Ministry of Justice.

The move comes after the KSA completed an investigation into operator duty of care practices in which it found current safeguards to be lacking to adequately protect bettors. It concluded that operators could intervene “more quickly and effectively” in some cases of excessive gambling.

KSA chairman René Jansen said: “The KSA puts safe play first. We receive worrying signals and, as a supervisory authority, we investigate providers who may far exceed the limits of their duty of care. If we notice this, we will intervene. 

“This research allowed us to see where, outside of these signals, providers are not doing well. Players must be able to assume that they can play safely. We see that rules need to be tightened, precisely to further promote a safe environment for players.”

The KSA’s research found that operators focused too much on deposits and bets at the expense of factors like the number of hours played, which meant that some problem players were missed.

The KSA is tightening its own rules, introducing a requirement for operators to conduct real-time monitoring and adding new rules on the indicators to be included in the assessment of gaming behaviour. It will also require operators to block problem players’ accounts until an intervention has been made.

Last week, the KSA announced the launch of a probe into prohibited cashback bonuses. It has contacted all licensees to warn them to stop offering the promotions.

The move comes after the regulator was alerted that an operator was using such offers. The alert involved one specific operator, which the KSA did not name. The regulator said that the licensee stopped the promotion immediately when contacted. However, it says it will conduct a market-wide investigation into the promotions, which allow customers to recover some of their losses if they lose a bet.