Kansspelautoriteit (KSA,) the Netherlands gaming regulator, has a new chairman, Michel Groothuizen. He succeeds René Jansen, who held the post for six years. He left because he had reached retirement age, CDC Gaming Reports wrote March 11. He will lead the agency he helped create.
Groothuizen’s term will begin July 1. He comes to the job from serving as deputy director general of the Judicial Institutions Service. Prior to that he was director general of the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry.
During his position as director of FEZ in the ministry of justice and security’s administrative department, he helped found the KSA.
He talked about that: “From 2007 onwards, as policy director, I was responsible, among other things, for the gambling dossier. One of my tasks was to establish the Gaming Authority. We succeeded in 2012.”
He added, “We had already been working on new legislation for a few years to manage online gambling offerings,” he continued. “It took almost 10 years before the law that was supposed to regulate this actually came into effect. I was long gone by then.”
He looks forward to the challenge of ensuring “safe gambling in a socially responsible manner and to combat negative consequences, such as gambling addiction.”
KSA has been in the news recently. Last week, the Netherlands’ minister of legal protection Franc Weerwind submitted new measures to improve consumer safety to the European Commission.
The new measures would amend the KOA, the Dutch online gambling law. One amendment would require that an operator contact a player who deposits more than €350 per month, €87.50 per week or €12.50 per day. The triggers would be lower for young people.
In addition, KSA imposed the largest ever gambling fine of €19.6 million to Gammix Ltd. This followed two investigations, a warning, and a fine of €4.4 million for ignoring an order to stop taking Dutch players in violation of Dutch law. Gammix denies the charge and says it will fight the fines.
