A total of 79 gambling companies have indicated that they are interested in obtaining a license from Kansspelautoriteit, the Netherlands’ gambling authority revealed on Monday.
The regulator launched an interest registration period on June 5, inviting international gambling companies to register their interest in operating in the country’s soon-to-be-reorganized market. Gaming and betting operators have until June 21 to inform Kansspelautoriteit about their potential interest in applying for a license.
They can do this by filling in the I want to become a Kansspelautoriteit license holder on the authority’s official website.
A bill calling for the reorganization of the Dutch online gambling space passed a final legislative hurdle this past February. The so-called Remote Gambling Bill was first approved by the Dutch House in the summer of 2016. The piece then saw little legislative action for the next two and a half years until the Senate finally passed it in February, paving the way for the liberalization of the local marketplace in a manner that would enable foreign companies to operate in a regulated environment.
Kansspelautoriteit is now tasked with preparing the licensing process. The regulator opened the interest registration process in a bid to inform itself about the scope of interest in the local market’s regulation.
Kansspelautoriteit has said that it needs to know how many license applications it should expect, once the Dutch Remote Gambling Act finally takes effect, to ensure a smooth licensing process. René Jansen, Chairman of the regulator, has said that having that knowledge is in their best interest, but “also in that of the applicants.”
Law Takes Effect in Mid-2020
Mr. Jansen was among the speakers at this year’s edition of the Gaming in Holland Conference, which took place earlier this month. The gaming regulator provided a relative timeline on what’s next for the Dutch gambling market reorganization process.
Mr. Jansen said that the country’s new gambling law is expected to take effect on July 1, 2020. As mentioned earlier, the legislation passed the Senate earlier this year. It is currently under review by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security and once that review is complete, Kansspelautoriteit will be able to move forward with setting the terms under which interested companies would be able to apply for a license.
The Kansspelautoriteit Chairman told Gaming in Holland Conference delegates that he hopes the market would finally open for online gambling on January 1, 2021.
The new Remote Gambling Act will replace outdated laws and regulations from more than five decades ago. The reorganization of the Dutch gambling market was expected to take place much earlier.
The Remote Gambling Bill was originally introduced in 2014 and many lawmakers believed that it would pass through all the necessary hurdles and be ready to take effect in 2015. Things unfolded differently, as it can be seen.
Mr. Jansen said earlier this month that the reorganization process has placed “quite a high demand” on the Dutch gaming regulator, which is not a large-scale organization, but that they are “doing everything in our power to get it done.” Kansspelautoriteit’s Chairman also added that they could hire external staff, if need be, in order to make the license application and awarding process as smooth as possible.
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