New KSA chairman stresses continuity in gambling reforms
Michel Groothuizen has made his first post as chairman.
The KSA’s new chairman, Michel Groothuizen, has said that there will be continuity in planned reforms of the Dutch Remote Gambling Act. Writing his first blog post since he took up the position on July 1, he referred to the new Dutch gambling minister and coalition government, which has stronger views against gambling, but said continuity and predictability would be key characteristics on his watch.
He wrote: “It would be a bit pretentious to compare the change of government at the KSA with the formation of a new cabinet. The comparison is only necessary because the moment when I succeeded my predecessor René Jansen practically coincided with the photo on the steps of the Schoof cabinet. Regardless of your political preferences, you can easily say that this is a special cabinet, with many new faces among the ministers and a different tone and, in a number of striking dossiers, emphatically different content than in the previous Rutte years.
“But in other areas, there will nevertheless be continuity and inevitability. The new ministers will also use largely the same underlying structure in the departments. And civil servants will support them, enthusiastically or not, but above all loyally, and provide them with expert advice, thereby contributing to a stable and predictable national government. And that is a good thing, because otherwise, much knowledge and expertise would be lost every four years, American style.”
Groothuizen said he hopes to engage with stakeholders in the gambling sector, including land-based gaming operators. However, he expressed frustration at the KSA’s lack of authority to directly block illegal gambling websites and plans to address this during upcoming reforms.
“This would make our supervision much more effective,” he wrote. That will therefore be an important point of discussion for me during the evaluation of the KOA law later this year. A total ban on advertising for illegal offers, regardless of whether they are available to Dutch players, is also an important part of this in my opinion and I will also strongly advocate this with the new state secretary, Teun Struycken.”
Commenting on the regulator’s new Online Duty of Care Unit, he added: “The stories about players who suffer large losses have not escaped me either, and our firm commitment is that with the terriers of this new department, we will simply no longer see these kinds of excesses in the very near future. The renewed Safe Gaming Policy Rule naturally plays an important role in this.”
KSA raps Holland Casino
Meanwhile, the KSA has issued a binding decision against Holland Casino following issues related to compliance with the Netherlands’ Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act.
The issue dates back to a 2019 finding that the state-controlled casino operator did not sufficiently check players’ gambling behaviour or the origin of their funds. The KSA noted that in March the Administrative Court of Appeal for Trade and Industry had partly upheld an appeal by the operator. It said the disclosure decision will not be made public, because it is subject to the duty of confidentiality.
