Advertiseing promoting unregulated gambling services in Netherland is prohibited.
The Netherlands’ gaming regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has published a guidance note that warns gambling operators that advertising can only promote regulated gambling services to Dutch residents.
And since the Dutch government’s plans to regulate the online gambling market are unlikely to come into effect until 2017, it means that ads for online gambling are illegal. For now, the rules greatly benefit land-based operators, pending the opening of the online gambling market.
“Since advertising has to lead to legal offers, it is now illegal to advertise online gambling,” KSA said in the note. “Advertising that serves to generate a favorable impression of a particular online gaming business is also not permitted.”
The note reiterated the standards and practices for the internet betting industry in the Netherlands, which were announced in June 2015. The standards, described as critical to protecting Dutch consumers ahead of the introduction of the Netherlands new online gambling bill, were implemented throughout all Dutch media channels including digital, print, radio and television.
The Dutch government has spent a great deal of effort blocking their citizens from betting on international sites. It blacklisted a host of sites and insisted that the country’s banks shouldn’t deal with them at all, but the banks refused. At the moment, many online gambling operators treat the Netherlands as a grey market: one in which they still operate because Dutch gaming laws do not sufficiently address online gambling one way or another.
According to State Secretary for Security and Justice Klaas Dijkhoff, online gambling sites will be able to obtain five-year licenses. In most cases, licensees would have to be based within the European Union or the European Economic Area. More than 200 online gambling businesses have already inquired about the possibility of getting licensed, according to KSA.
