Change is on the horizon for the remote gaming and gambling industry and its relationship with the Netherlands.
Currently, legislation does not provide for the award of licences for remote gaming and gambling but instead concentrates the supply of offline gambling in the hands of sector-based monopolies, such as sports betting and horserace betting.
These operators are permitted to offer their offline services via the internet under the guise of ‘e-commerce’. Nevertheless, over half a million Dutch residents regularly participate in remote gaming and gambling and following a change of government in October 2010 this is now set to be regulated for the first time.
A new independent regulator is likely to become operational in January 2012 and in theory by the end of that year the first licences for remote gaming and gambling will be available.
iNTERGAMINGi spoke to Alan Littler from Dutch law firm VMW Taxand: "While the award of the licences will have to comply with the CJEU’s Betfair decision, further details such as whether there will be a cap on the number of licences and the conditions which will be attached to them are currently elusive.
"Much will play out in the forthcoming months as the State Secretary of Safety and Justice’s plans are debated within parliament, where a variety of differing views currently prevails."
