René Jansen, chairman of the Netherlands’ regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) wrote last week that the first year of the iGaming online market was occasionally rocky but, “Step by step, we are getting even closer to the desired ultimate goal: a completely safe environment for people who want to gamble online, without any place for illegal providers.”
Jansen issued a report on the first year of online gaming on the KSA website. The report noted that the channelization rate in the country was 85 percent, i.e. that is the percent of players who are gambling online by legal means, as opposed to non-licensed sites. The market is generating about €80 million (£74.5 million/$82.4 million) on average each month.
As of September, there were 22 licensed operators in the online market, compared to 10 when the market opened a year ago. The number of people playing has not changed noticeably.
Noting the challenges that accompanied the market’s first year, the chairman said, “It is certainly not uncommon that there are initial difficulties when applying a new law or imperfections in the accompanying regulations.” He added, “It is important to make the right adjustments on the basis of the observed facts, whereby the right balance must always be sought.”
Too much regulation, he said, would encourage players to turn to the black market.
He noted that the introduction of the market was controversial at first. “As is known, it took the Netherlands a long time to legalize online gambling; political views on this were and are divided.” He concluded, “Ultimately, a political majority was in favor of creating a safe environment for those people who gamble over the internet.”
