KSA wants licensee to respond quicker to harmful gambling red flags

The Dutch Gaming Authority has been actively engaged in cleaning up the regulated gambling market in the Netherlands, with the authority following tips about unlawful advertisement in physical spaces and the misuse of cashback bonuses over the past couple of days.

Now, the Kansspelautoriteit, as the regulatory body is known for its Dutch name, has issued a new update and caution to licensees, urging them to act quicker and more determinedly in cases where gambling harm is flagged. This follows a review of the first 10 licensees to obtain a permit to provide games of chance in the Netherlands.

In fact, the watchdog has gone ahead and gathered empirical evidence to propose changes to the existing regulatory framework that the regulator believes would lead to licensees taking better care of consumers so that players are better protected.

Safety is paramount for the regulator, explained its Chairman, René Jansen, an outspoken supporter of responsible gambling and trailblazer of consumer standards in the gambling industry. He reminded regulated entities that they have a "duty of care," which means they are expected to take active steps and prevent gambling harm, intervene in time, and generally look out for the consumer’s best interest.

According to the recent research conducted by the KSA, too many of the licensees were "unable" to provide sufficient protection. Specifically, the flagged issues had to do with slow intervention in cases where gambling addiction may have motivated consumer behavior. There was an "inability" to monitor consumers in real-time, the KSA explained in an official statement.

The reason why this is, according to the regulator, has to do with the fact that too much attention is put on the size of bets and deposit amounts, while other important factors – such as hours of play – were often overlooked, for example. This was particularly clear in some of the lower age groups.

Operators seem to be sufficiently committed when allocating further monitoring measures for the younger group of players, usually those between 18-24 and 24-30 years of age. However, the Kansspelautoriteit noted that these groups were more difficult to show up on any monitoring statistics precisely because they usually placed lower wagers and deposits.

This did not preclude the possibility of such individuals being at risk of developing a problem or experiencing one. It was just that the monitoring systems deployed by operators did not necessarily consider those consumers a risk.

The regulator is therefore moving with a set of proposals that will better adjust the regulatory framework to help licensees offer adequate support to those groups, with measures such as real-time monitoring, adding more rules of what types of metrics should be monitored, and even blocking of accounts until the mandatory intervention has taken place.

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