The Dutch gaming authority, de Kansspelautoriteit, or KSA, has followed through on its threat to enact harsher regulations on gambling ads aimed at young people.
The KSA had previously noted that marketing in the Dutch market was making its way to examples such as the YouTube channel TeenTok and television family programs such as MarbleMania.
The new rules are now laid out and have been announced to come into effect as soon as June 30th. The KSA has pointed out that they intend to monitor operators to comply with the gambling ads ban and there were threats of enforcement delivered.
The KSA has already issued a warning in February of 2022 to various operators about their advertising operations, saying, “The protection of vulnerable groups such as minors, young adults, or problem players is a priority for the KSA. They are extra sensitive to gambling addiction and are therefore not allowed to see gambling advertising.
“The law sets strict requirements for this. Even if advertising is outsourced, the licence-holder remains responsible. The agreements must be laid down in writing in advance.”
The Dutch minister for legal protection, Franc Weerwind, also released a statement in March as a warning. He said he “will make every effort to achieve further restrictions on advertising for high-risk games of chance as soon as possible”.
“With these measures, untargeted advertising for online games of chance will be severely limited in the shortest possible time, in anticipation of a change in the law.
“I’ve also been in talks with addiction treatment centres. They have told me that the sheer volume of gambling advertisements leads to unrest among recovering addicts and problematic gambling among people who identify with the role models appearing in the ads. That was a reason for me not to wait.”
