The purpose of these periodic reports is always to provide a factual picture of the (early) state of affairs and to outline the developments. The topic deserves that. As is known, it took the Netherlands a long time to legalize online gambling; political views on this were and are divided. Ultimately, a political majority was in favor of creating a safe environment for those people who gamble over the internet. Hundreds of thousands of Dutch people already did that before October 1, 2021, even if it was illegal.

Our recent report received a lot of media attention. We saw that such a report is looked at in different ways. One medium focuses on the size of the market. Another medium is mainly interested in the number of young adults playing. Still others look at the total number of online players or growth, at the development of advertising, at the average loss per player account or the political objective of 'channeling' players from illegal to legal providers.

I very much welcome the diverse perspectives from which the results are looked at. It helps to have the right and penetrating conversation and to walk the right paths that ultimately lead to an - ideally - completely safe online gambling environment, which intervenes in time if people lose control. It also shows that there is not one knob to turn when adjustments need to be made.

This also became apparent on Thursday 6 October during the Committee debate in the House of Representatives on games of chance, which was dominated by 1 year of online market. There, too, it became clear that there are different angles to look at the developments and that there are varying wishes for adjustments or measures after 1 year of online market. Meanwhile, a lot has happened in the field of advertising (ban on using role models in advertising since June 30) and a ban on untargeted advertising for online games of chance is in the works. Minister Franc Weerwind also hinted on Thursday that with regard to the widely desired tightening of the duty of care, he is thinking of introducing mandatory playing limits (a maximum bet, see what I wrote about this in my previous blog ).

Step by step, we are getting even closer to the desired ultimate goal: a completely safe environment for people who want to gamble online, without any place for illegal providers. It is certainly not uncommon for there to be initial difficulties when applying a new law or imperfections in the accompanying regulations. Practice is often unruly and society and the behavior of citizens and businesses are not easy to control. It is important to make the right adjustments on the basis of the observed facts, whereby the right balance must always be sought. Too strict regulation of legal providers can cause illegal providers to be searched again too often. The right choices must be made, partly with the help of our reports. This also applies to the Gaming Authority itself.

Rene Jansen

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