The president of the Dutch gambling authority, the KSA, has called on casinos to self-regulate and impose limits on players. Although the limits are already mandatory in the Dutch Remote Gambling Act, the details of these limits are not defined. As a result, casinos offer players a ‘limit’ of 24 hours of play per day, and a depositing limit of €100,000 a day. In a recent appeal to casinos, René Jansen has called casinos to start actually implementing limits, or face the consequences.
Kassa and controversy
Reason for his appeal is an ongoing controversy about the impact of the new online casinos on vulnerable players. After years of debate, the Dutch Remote Gambling Act was approved and put in place over the course of 2021. The first legal casinos in the country opened in October 2021. Since then, a steady stream of casino controversies has swept the nation.
First, politicians debate the amount of television ads that followed the legalization of online gambling A problem is the exposure of triggers to players vulnerable to a gambling addiction. In that regard, Kassa, a consumer protection program on Dutch television, decided to look into the mandatory playing limits. They found that these mandatory limits have little to no substance – in the way they’re being used now.
Dutch limits and protective measures
Ironically, the Dutch license is one of the strictest gaming licenses in the world, especially aimed at protecting vulnerable players. Casinos have to enter each new player into a central database (CRUKS), train their employees to spot playing patterns revealing an early-onset addiction, and send quarterly reports to the Dutch Gaming Authorities.
Players also see their fair share of measures. To join a casino, they need to upload a picture of a photo ID, and payment options are limited to bank accounts that are directly linked to a player’s identity.
To adjust these limits, players have a waiting time of about a week. Tightening the reigns is always an option, but losening these limits takes a good amount of time. The problem is that these limits aren’t necessarily limits. The maximum limit for time to play daily is 24 hours.
Jansen’s appeal
In the Kassa broadcast these weaknesses in the system were highlighted, René Jansen appealed to online casinos to start treating these limits ‘in the spirit of the law, rather than to the letter of the law’. Technically, these casinos aren’t doing anything wrong, but everybody understands that a limit of 24 hours in a day is not a limit – and that depositing €700,000 in a week still reveals a gambling problem. For the complete article about his appeal, click here.
If casinos are unwilling to take their responsibility, it’s not unthinkable that measures will be taken for them. Casinos with a Dutch license are under a lot of scrutiny, especially with the controversies surrounding the flood of advertisements. At the same time, casinos might respond to this appeal favorably. Self-regulation is a big part of the Dutch license. Bonuses have a € 250 value limit – imposed by the casinos themselves.
Conclusion
The Dutch license is aimed at protecting vulnerable players at every turn, but not every measure works out as expected. When it comes to the mandatory limits, some improvements are necessary to make them work like limits. This responsibility now lies with the players, but according to René Jansen, it’s time that casinos take their responsibility, too.
