Six gambling research projects underway in the Netherlands

The projects received funding from the KSA’s Addiction Prevention Fund.

The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has announced that six gambling research projects are underway after receiving funding from its Addiction Prevention Fund (VPF). Projects focus on prevention, treatment and interventions and on product characteristics.

The Prevention of Gambling Addiction programme, which is funded by a levy on high-risk games, is managed by the healthcare research group ZonMw under a contract that runs until 2029. 

Amsterdam University Medical Centers (Amsterdam UMC) and the Trimbos Institute will each run two programmes. The former will evaluate innovation in effective cognitive-behavioural therapy for gambling. Trimbos will aim to develop and test a Moti-4 approach, which involves motivational interviewing, in youth gambling problems and, with the University of Amsterdam, will explore what types of gambling adverts reach vulnerable groups and what impact they have. 

The other bodies to have received funding are the Human Assistance Network for Daily Support (HANDS) and The National Healthcare Institute. They will explore initiatives designed to minimise gambling harm.

Meanwhile, the KSA has issued a warning to web hosting providers to make sure they respect the Netherlands’ rules on gambling advertising.

It comes after the regulator issued binding instructions to Cloudflare ordering it to cease hosting services for the affiliate websites of Nederlandscasinos.net and Onlinecasinosspelen.com, which it says were advertising unlicensed gambling. The owners of the two sites are unknown, leading the KSA to issue the order to the hosting provider.