With new Dutch PM Rob Jetten setting into power, his coalition’s action plan has room to clash with the gambling regulator on two key areas.

This was raised by Michel Groothuizen, Chairman of Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), in a letter addressed to Jetten and all other policymakers part of the new coalition government.

“The new cabinet wants to ‘protect the vulnerable from profiteers’. There Jetten easily finds us on his side,” Groothuizen said in his statement.

“With the further ‘strengthening the duty of care of online gambling providers’ and the ‘harder tackling of illegal gambling sites’, the ambitions of the new cabinet also fit seamlessly with those of the KSA.”

However, the KSA Chair expressed concern on several points in the coalition’s seventy-page manifesto, which he said are “well-intentioned” but could prove “not very helpful”.

The first provision mandates a full ban on online gambling advertisements, on top of an already existing ban on gambling sports sponsorships. And although Groothuizen maintained that he understands this is in the name of player protection, he also highlighted that the bulk of advertising, especially online, currently stems from illegal providers.

In particular, he pointed out that out of the 60,000 promotions seen by Dutch consumers monthly on Facebook and Instagram in the last year, the KSA has found that less than 2,000 were from licensed online providers.

Remaining adamant that the KSA will do everything in its power to support Jetten as he marches on against the black market, Groothuizen stated that a ban on online advertising will only affect legal providers, especially when ‘large tech companies continue to be reactive’ – leading to a further leak of players.

“That does not seem to me to be the intended goal of the new cabinet,” he said.

Secondly, the coalition cabinet’s plans to limit the number of license holders also has the potential to have negative consequences, Groothuizen added: “There is no reason to assume that there will be less advertising in a market with five providers than if there are 25, or that the number of players is decreasing.”

Not all political drama

Still, the KSA Chair ended on a positive note, commenting that he’s looking forward to the cooperation between the regulator and parliament “with enthusiasm”. 

“On the main goals, protecting the vulnerable and fighting illegality, there is no difference between the goals of the cabinet and those of us as a supervisor. We wish the new government officials a lot of wisdom…and are ready to get started together.”

As a reminder, Jetten and the new coalition cabinet was formed as the result of snap elections last year, where the previous cabinet left a number of online gambling reforms in the air after its dissolution.

The reforms – some of which already implemented such as stricter player deposits and more advertising scrutiny – will now be handled by Claudia Van Bruggen, who was just recently announced as the next Secretary for Legal Protections.