Even though we are talking about a quite small country, the Dutch online casino market is quite important. That doesn’t refer to regional operators only, but to global players as well. Simply, online gambling has a pretty long tradition in the Netherlands. However, the field hasn’t been completely regulated so far and this will be the first time to see operators with the specific Dutch licenses, which will allow news online casinos to operate in this country, starting from the next October.
The Dutch Government needed six years to finish this law. Interestingly, the initial deadline was July 2020. After a couple of delays, online gambling is finally regulated in the Netherlands. The new national Remote Gambling Act came into effect on 1st April and as you may presume, the new set of regulations will be completely aligned with the latest trends in the European Union. This means that a wide range of aspects will be covered and that players may count on protection in all fields. They may also count on taxes on their winnings but we will discuss that subject another time.
The most important thing about this article is that a new regulatory body has been formed. It is called Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) and besides other responsibilities, this body will also issue licenses. Operators who want to offer their services in this country will have to meet a number of criteria and if their applications turn out to be successful, they will start to operate in the Netherlands on the 1st of October.
Besides the necessary documentation, a fee of €48,000 is also required, as a part of the submission.
Despite there is still a lot of time before the market opens, KSA started to accept applications in April. According to the latest reports, there are around 30 operators that have applied for the license only and paid the fee in April. Once they get the license, they will have enough time to prepare for the market opening.
Although we have never found the complete list of contenders, we know some of the names. This mostly refers to local operators. However, we have no doubt that a number of global players are on the list of contenders as well. We are still waiting for the officials to come up with the whole list.
That list probably won’t be announced. The officials will rather come up with the first bunch of approved licenses. That day will come soon but we have some insider information. From what we know so far, the first operators to gain the licenses will be local players, such as Holland Casino, Nederlandse Loterij, Novamedia (Postcodeloterij), ZEbetting & Gaming, Fair Play Casino and Jack’s Casino. Of course, we expect that global players will gain their licenses in a short time as well. Rumors say that Bet365 will be one of the first global players to get the license.
We expect that the officials will come up with more information, as we are getting closer to the 1st of October.