Illegal online gambling in the Netherlands grew by 20 percent in the last two years, according to a study commissioned by Holland Casino, which has a legal monopoly on gaming in the country.
This study of 18,000 Dutch citizens by the research firm Motivaction, comes just as the Dutch Senate is preparing to take up whether to legalize online gaming. The issue stalled there three years ago. The company found that nearly 2 million were gambling on unlicensed sites, about 300,000 more than two years ago.
The survey found that the online market remains about €600 million, despite new players. It also found that the great majority of players would rather patronize a legal operation, and the survey speculated that the government stood to reap about €175 million if it legalize eGaming.
Erwin van Lambaart, director of Holland Casino, urged the States General to legalize online gaming. He declared “More and more Dutch people gamble totally unprotected on the internet. They do so with international providers who are established on sunny holiday islands with dubious regulations.” They also don’t pay taxes, he added.
The Senate will debate the Netherlands’ Remote Gaming Bill on February. The House of Representatives has already passed the bill in 2016. The government has promised to add regulations to identify and fight problem gambling using “smart algorithms” in the gaming technology.
