In the Netherlands, the regulator announced the need to check the age of players

The Dutch gambling regulator (KSA) has added age checking on online gambling services as a priority criterion. With the onset of 2020, online gambling operators will be required to check the age of players before the registration process.

This issue is on the agenda of the gambling regulator due to the high prevalence of illegal gambling sites on the Web. Now, mandatory age checks will also be added to all available criteria. According to the representatives of KSA, an important priority is now to prevent the fate of minors in gambling.

Lack of confirmation of age before the completion of the registration process will also have implications for operators in the longer term. User statements about their age of majority will be enough. Players must understand how their age is checked. Additionally, KSA recalls that offering gambling without a license is prohibited. Fulfillment of the requirement for confirmation of age does not mean that the gambling regulator will refrain from checking or that a future application for a license extension will be approved.

The gambling regulator KSA was created back in 2012. Two years later, in 2014, a bill was created on the legalization of online gambling. The bill contained the rules governing the online games market, the redistribution of funds collected as taxes from gambling operations, in favor of charitable organizations, etc.

The document was already adopted by the House of Representatives in summer 2016, however, it hasn’t been considered in the Upper House of Parliament for more than two years.

Initially, it was expected that the online gambling market of the Netherlands would be launched on January 1, 2021, but recently the deadline was postponed to July 1. From January 1, the process of operators licensing will begin. It’s assumed that operators will pay a tax of 29% of the gross turnover. The cost of a license for online gambling will be 800 thousand euros. At the same time, customers should be provided with round-the-clock support in Dutch.

However, in the Netherlands, the behavior of gamblers is actively studied. According to the current data, the gambling problem is more typical of slot lovers.

In July of this year, the gambling regulator also published rules for protecting online gambling users. At the same time, the main message was sent to operators who undertake to develop a strategy for working in the market, based on the norms deduced in the manual.

Thus, the point is that operators should provide an exhaustive list of games that will be offered to users, their exact description, variations and methods for determining the winner. 

According to a study conducted by Motivaction research company for the period from 2016 to 2018, the number of Dutch citizens using the services of offshore gambling operators increased by 20% and amounted to 1.8 million people. The volume of the illegal online gambling market in the Netherlands is currently about 600 million euros. At the same time, the country’s budget for the year received less than 175 million euros of tax revenue.