The Dutch government has sanctioned new rules for dissemination of gambling harm research, printing them in the official gazette. The new regulations require that operators offer certain data for research purposes to ensure an understanding of harmful gambling, according to iGaming Business.
“In practice, research institutions and the persons employed or associated with them who conduct research into gambling addiction do not always easily obtain the required research data,” it said. “To facilitate this, the law provides that all online license holders are obliged, subject to conditions, to make anonymous data available to research institutions on request for research into gambling addiction.”
The research law is part of the Dutch Remote Gambling Act, which took effect on April 1. Licensees must register and analyze data related to player behavior and make data available to research institutions if requested.
Data includes internal and external signals pointing to excessive participation in licensed games of chance or risks of gambling addiction, interventions and the player’s response to them, login frequency, play frequency, player age if they are under 24 and transaction history.
“This data is important for scientific research and the development of new scientific insights into problematic gaming behavior, and the development of intervention methods tailored to the player to prevent the development from recreational to problematic gaming behavior as much as possible,” the law says.
The research institution must inform both the executive board and the relevant license holder of the publication.
Some operators have elected to block Dutch customers until they receive an online gaming license from the KSA, after the Dutch government announced a change in enforcement policy. Operators include Kindred and Entain, Betsson and LeoVegas.
