Netherlands online casinos

Netherlands Online Casinos

Dutch people have always enjoyed all forms of gambling. The country has many casinos and race courses spread along this small European country. The state controls all forms of gambling in the country with a single company called Holland Casino that holds the monopoly and operates all land casinos.

Most of the casinos in Holland are called Fair Play Centers and the only foreign company that was able to enter the Dutch gambling market is a Dutch based company that is really a subsidiary of Scientific Games. They run horse race betting and also handle online pari-mutuel betting.

The Dutch has a rich history of gambling and historians state that during the 18th century is was a common practice to run lottery games in aid of the poor or to raise funds for all sorts of public projects or activities.

Gambling online has been somewhat an issue in the Netherlands as the government is adamant to keep tight controls and ensure that no foreign operators get a slice of the Dutch gambling pie. In 2005 they passed a law preventing Dutch players from playing on any sites that are not based in the Netherlands. This seems ironic as the Dutch government refused to issue licenses so there are no Dutch operated online casinos.

In 2008 they tried to make local banks stop accepting transactions from online casino operators. The banks resisted claiming that what the Dutch government is doing is in violation of EU law and they have the European Commission on their side, which also claims the Dutch online gambling ban is illegal.

Today the struggle continues but there is no real prevention and Dutch players continue to happily play in various online casinos that offer software and support in Dutch to their players.