Dutch Justice Minister Sander Dekker has said that his department will enforce restrictions on the use of online player databases.
His words came as the Netherlands’ government adds the finishing touches to the Remote Gaming Act, set to come into play next year.
Dekker mentioned the player database restrictions when responding to parliamentary questions in a legal briefing.
Operators will be obliged to terminate all of their existing customer database before the market becomes regulated.
Levelling the playing field
According to Dekker, the wiping of all existing player databases will help to create a level playing field for new licensed operators ahead of the market’s launch. This is scheduled for the beginning of 2021.
However, not everybody was in agreement with him. His own VVD Party expressed worries that this order will make channelling players to regulated operators – which is the Act’s main priority – more difficult.
According to the VVD, Dekker hasn’t clarified how these restrictions will guide an estimated one million online players towards legal gambling activity.
But the Justice Minister sought to counter these concerns. He said that his order aligned with the legislative mandate of Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the country’s gambling regulator. The KSA will, before the market goes live, perform ‘reliability assessments’ on all licence applicants.
Illegal online gambling won’t be tolerated
Dekker also said that the KSA has given ‘direct powers’ to clamp down on unregulated operators in the country. Some of these include ISP and payment service blocking, along with issuing fines to advertisers of illegal sites.
The regulator has already begun to address unlicensed gambling operators in recent years. In 2019, Malta-based Casumo was fined €310,000 for offering iDeal – a popular Dutch payment method. Moreover, its live chat feature provided answers in Dutch – suggesting that players in the Netherlands were being targeted.
Other brands, such as 1xBet, William Hill and Betsson Group have also been given financial penalties for similar actions.
