SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has disclosed that it has so far received 28 individual operator applications to join Dutch gambling’s new regulated online gambling marketplace, due to officially commence from 1 October 2021.
The KSA made its announcement providing an update on its licensing window, which was launched on 1 April, bringing the Kamer’s formally approved ‘Remote Gambling Act’ (KOA Act) mandate into life.
Updating stakeholders, KSA chairman Rene Jansen reiterated the regulator’s previous warning prior to launching the window, stating that all applicants would be thoroughly examined accounting for their previous conduct and reputation on safer gambling.
“The intention of the law is to channel players from illegal providers to legally reliable providers. With this number of applications, I am confident that there will soon be a sufficiently attractive and varied offer to achieve this objective,” Jansen’s statement read.
All applicants must guarantee that they have fulfilled all of the KOA Act’s pre-market technical requirements with regards to maintaining their customer databases and connecting their remote platforms with the ‘Cruks’ national self-exclusion database.
Final amendments to the KOA Act saw the Dutch policy agencies demand that applicant parties provide a ‘quality assurance document’ verified and approved by an independent auditor.
Furthermore, all KOA applicants must register and disclose their ‘Dutch officer’, who will be the legal representative of the business with regards to their market activities and regulatory disciplines.
“The law modernises Dutch games of chance policy. The legalisation and regulation of online games of chance is the most eye-catching innovation,” KSA detailed in the signing-off of its statement.
“The law also tightens up the requirements in the field of addiction prevention for all high-risk games of chance (online and land-based). Additional and new provisions will also apply in the field of advertising and recruitment.”
