Yesterday the Dutch Senate voted to pass the Remote Gambling Bill, which will legalize online gambling in the Netherlands next year.
The bill passed with a majority vote and culminates a three year process, which saw many false starts come as lawmakers couldn't come to agreements as to how to proceed. This left the Netherlands in the lurch, as punters in the country used unlicensed sites and the country wasn't protecting those players or generating tax revenues.
It's expected that licenses will begin being issued in 2020 with the service going live in 2021. Operators who've been offering services in the country illegally will have to wait for a two year period before they can apply for a license.
The move has drawn praise from industry executives, who're ready to conduct business legally in the country of 17 million. Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall spoke about the passage, sharing: "Finally, there will be modern gambling legislation in one more big monopolistic market in Europe… We welcome the regulation despite our concern about the so called cooling off period which could harm channelization of local customers as well as be deemed as non-compliant with EU law."
Comments
Wow, what a bureaucracy and a lengthily process there...I doubt it's a problem for the illegal operators that they would have to wait for another two years before being able to gain licenses cause the local punters would still continue to play during the time i.e the state would still loosing money...but that's an issue for which the local government could only blame themselves and no one else.