The Netherlands set to liberalise iGaming

The online gaming market could be liberalised after a proposed legislation has been resurrected in the lower house.

Netherlands.- The Netherlands’ Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker has asked the legislature’s lower house to move forward with an online gambling liberalisation plan. He wrote a letter explaining what steps his office was set to take to ensure consumer protection measures around the segment.

Senators are set to resume the debate on the Remote Gaming Bill, which was passed by the lower house two years ago but failed to repeat in the Senate. However, as Dekker pushes for the segment’s liberalisation, it is expected that the piece of legislation will be – at least – debated.

The Minister explained in the letter that online licensees will be required to establish a physical presence in the Netherlands or have “a secondary establishment” if they don’t have a presence in the European Union (in order to comply with the block’s rules). Furthermore, operators with EU presence will have to establish a local “representative in the field of addiction prevention” and contribute 0.25 per cent of their revenue to fund problem gambling treatments.

There will be opposition in the Senate from parties that have already been stalling the bill’s treatment. However, as their main concern is the impact of online gambling on Dutch society and the government has introduced provisions for that matter, they may be less restrained about it.