New plans have been announced for online games of chance, lotteries, gaming machines, poker, sports betting and bingo.
State Secretary Teeven intends to create a responsible, safe and contemporary gaming policy, with an emphasis on creating new possibilities for both providers and consumers of online gaming as opposed to restricting the market. The State Secretary believes that a suitable and attractive offer of games of chance should be available to consumers online, while at the same time ensuring that vulnerable groups are protected as much as possible. By setting strict rules, Teeven intends to minimise the risk inherent in games of chance, such as addiction, fraud and crime, but he also wants to move with the times by providing players with a varied and legal offer of games of chance.
Currently, the Betting and Gaming Act (WoK) prohibits offering games of chance if no licence has been granted for this purpose and the law does not yet offer the possibility to play games of chance online. Offering games of chance online is therefore not legal in the Netherlands, although each year hundreds of thousands of Dutch citizens indulge in doing so. Including a licensing system for online games of chance in the WoK, will ensure that consumers are able to play online games of chance legally and more control can be exercised over the providers of these games.
In addition to the regulations in the field of online games of chance, Teeven wants to encourage competition - where the interests involved permit this - by making it possible for more parties to obtain a licence. Currently, the WoK states that only one licence can be granted for a number of categories of games of chance, but Teeven wants to be able to deviate from the above and investigate whether more competition can be created with respect to instant lotteries, sports bets, the totalisator and gaming casinos.
In order to achieve modernisation of the gaming policy, an accelerated legislative process will be introduced, whereby a licensing system for a broad offer of games of chance online is introduced. In addition, a legal basis for the transparent granting of licences for lotteries that support charities will be created and an open licensing system for not-for-profit lotteries. Teeven hopes to present this bill to the Lower House later this year.
In order to give current and future lottery licence holders sufficient time to prepare for the new situation, Teeven has decided to stop issuing licences within the current system on December 31, 2014. Any new system will therefore not become effective sooner than January 1, 2015.
