As part of the reforms promised by the Dutch coalition government, the Netherlands plans to offer its country-owned Holland Casino monopoly to the worldwide market and then legalize online gambling with hopes of increased competition, interest, and, of course, revenue.
While the plan to sell is set, how the government will approach the sale is not. “It is unclear at this stage if it will be a sale or an initial public offering. The government hasn’t decided how the sale will take place,” Justin Franssen, a lawyer at VMW Taxand who specialises in the gaming sector said in a recent Reuters article.
According to Wikipedia, Holland Casino is “the” source of gambling in the Netherlands as it has a legal monopoly on casino games there. With 14 casinos throughout the country, all funds generated by Holland Casino go straight to the Dutch treasury. Lately, however, those profits have been slim, with one million annual visitors generating a slim profit of $4.9 million per year.
Holland Casinos are notoriously lack-luster by Las Vegas standards, and a buy-out could revitalize the brand to take advantage of the 11 million tourists that visit the Netherlands annually. As it stands, Holland Casino announced it will have to cut 10% of its workforce in order to save the 50 million euros it needs to stay afloat.
Technology titan, Apple, has put the iGaming industry in its crosshairs again with a recent announcement that will have a big effect on a rapidly-growing sector of the industry.
This time the tech firm is gunning for social casino apps which have become very popular in the last few years and are currently not specifically regulated by most jurisdictions.
Social casinos are casinos where players do not place bets using real money.
Ahead of the expected launch of the Dutch regulated gaming market in 2021, the Minister for Legal Protection, Sander Dekker, has published a set of secondary regulations with the industry stakeholders being able to submit comments on the proposed rules until the 18th of September.
The rules mostly deal with player protection, transparency around bonus offers, and impose a duty on the operators to monitor for and deal with problem gambling.
Stiff Regulations:
The Dutch top gambling regulator announced that the Netherlands’ new regulated online gambling market won’t take off for another year and a half.
During the Gaming in Holland conference, the chairman of the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) gaming regulatory body, Rene Jansen, said that the regulator was planning for the country’s new Remote Gambling Act to take effect on July 1, 2020.
International Operators Highly Interested:
