Michel Groothuizen named chair of Dutch Gambling regulator
Groothuizen will replace René Jansen at the helm of the KSA.
The Netherlands.- Michel Groothuizen has been appointed as chairman of the Dutch gambling regualtor Kansspelautoriteit (KSA). He will succeed René Jansen from July 1.
Groothuizen is deputy director general of the Judicial Institutions Service. He was previously director general at the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and was policy director at the Ministry of Justice and Security’s administrative department. That latter role included overseeing the creation of the KSA in 2012 and work on the development of what would become legislation to open a regulated online gambling market, which was finally implemented in 2021.
He said: “We had been working on new legislation for online gambling offerings for a few years. It took almost 10 years before the law that was supposed to regulate this actually came into effect. I was long gone by then. But I think it is a wonderful challenge at this time to ensure safe gambling in a socially responsible manner and to combat negative consequences, such as gambling addiction.”
Jansen’s departure was announced in October. He led the KSA for six years but chose not to stand for reappointment since he has reached retirement age.
The KSA recently issued its biggest fine to date, with a €19.6m penalty against Gammix Limited. Gammix has disputed the sanction.
Meanwhile, Nederlandse Loterij’s monopoly on lottery gambling in the Netherlands has been called into question by a court ruling. The East Brabant District Court deemed the continued lottery monopoly after the opening of the regulated online gambling marketplace in 2021 to be “inconsistent”.
A gambling operator had taken the matter to court after having its application for a lottery licence rejected by the Dutch gambling regulator KSA in September of 2022. The East Brabant District Court’s ruling doesn’t name the business involved, but Dutch media have reported it to be JVH Gaming, which operates Jack’s Casino and Jacks.nl.
