The Dutch Liberalize Online Gambling

The Netherlands is the recent EU Member State to move towards legalizing and regulating online gambling for its residents to ensure a safe online gambling environment and revenues for the state from taxation.

The Dutch government has set in place the framework for licensing and regulation online poker, bingo, sports betting and casino gambling in recognition of the benefits that other European countries have reaped from the legislative changes they introduced in the field.

The current situation in Holland is detrimental to the Dutch state and its residence as the government-owned Holland Casino is holding a state monopoly over online gambling and by law is the only place where Dutch players can gamble online.

However many offshore gambling companies continued to offer their services to Dutch gamblers in defiance of Dutch law by offering gaming platforms that supported the Dutch language and accepted Dutch payment methods, resulting in loss of revenues both for Holland Casino and the Dutch government.

It also created a situation where Dutch players fell victims to rogue casinos and had no relief under Dutch law.

The strict restrictions against the operations of foreign companies were softened by the recently appointed coalition government that saw the financial benefits in relaxing the current laws, a move that is clearly motivated by the economic downturn that Europe is experiencing following the financial crisis of 2008.

In addition a strong lobby of gambling companies challenging the current legislation in Holland and complaining to the European Commission that the Dutch state-run gaming monopoly is in violation of EU trade laws and that the Dutch are obliged to open up their market to other European companies.

The news of the impending change has been welcomed by industry leaders that foresee the Dutch taking a similar route to the French Government.