New RG rules in the Netherlands to be announced in June

The Netherlands is in the process of revising the country’s Responsible Gambling Policy Rules, which are due to be updated this year. The Kansspelautoriteit or the Dutch Gambling Authority, as the regulator is known outside the country, has announced at the end of 2023, that it would seek input from the gambling industry to help pass meaningful changes on responsible gambling.

The original deadline for industry feedback was originally set for the beginning of May, but it has now been pushed back, due to an extension of the input process. As a result, the Kansspelautoriteit has confirmed that the rules will be announced with a month’s delay, on June 3, 2024.

This is also because the Kansspelautoriteit has acknowledged the requests by some of the consulted parties that they would need more time to make sure they can furnish adequate and helpful feedback to the regulator, which all in all took more time than anticipated.

The announcement of the new rules will also coincide with their immediate implementation, which means that stakeholders will have to comply with the regulations right away. A grace period that may be granted may to allow companies to catch up and adjust their offers, to make sure that they are on the same page with the regulator, but the Kansspelautoriteit will observe that the provisions of the Responsible Gambling Policy are strictly complied with come what may..

These new rules will come at a particular time for the Dutch gambling industry after lawmakers voted last week and agreed to pass a number of gambling-related provisions. Most notably, MPs agreed to ban games of chance where the player had no control over the outcome, or in other words online slots.

The suggestion of banning online slots has sent ripples across businesses, but it has been met in stride by some of the bigger companies in the sector. Commenting on its pending acquisition of Kindred Group, FDJ said that it was confident in the decision to buy out the company, and called the ban of online slots in the Netherlands a "non-event."

Dutch MPs also said that they would be banning online gambling advertisements, the type that is currently allowed, but FDJ said that this was something that benefited established brands such as itself anyway.

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