Netherlands regulator urges online casinos to lower daily limits; warns Govt. could step in

The Dutch Gambling Authority is calling on online casinos to lower their daily limits, local media reports. The decision is being taken after Kassa, a Dutch TV consumer protection show, revealed users could set their money limit to 100,000 euros per day and playing time limit to 24 hours per day.

"Strictly speaking, the provider is not doing anything wrong with this," said Rene Jansen, Gambling Authority chairman, according to NU.nl. "However, I would like to call on the providers of online gambling to look at this carefully. It may not be to the letter, but it is the spirit of the law to limit the limits set."

Jansen said operators must include a “moral side” to their corporate social responsibility. "I cannot imagine that limits like those mentioned are necessary to compete with the illegal gambling sites," he added, calling for providers to prioritize player safety.

According to the cited news source, Jansen predicted that, if the providers fail to take action themselves, the government could change the law in order to force them to do so. Current legislation requires players to set both money and time limits before gambling, but does not provide guidance to operators for maximum limits, which has been described as “a loophole.”

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) chairman cited Sweden as a case of a country in which authorities, after providers failed to take sufficient responsibility, were forced to intervene. “This was recently the case in Sweden, where the deposit limit was lowered and a stricter control on advertising was announced,” he exemplified. “My cautious assessment is that we could also go down that road in the Netherlands if providers no longer take responsibility.”

Online gambling has been legal in the Netherlands since last year, when the market launched on October 1 with 10 operators. Others have joined since, although Jansen had previously said a complete picture of what the online market will look like should be expected around July 2022.

Along with the market, the Kansspelautoriteit launched a central player exclusion register called CRUKS (Centraal Register Uitsluiting Kansspelen), where gamblers can be included both voluntarily or involuntarily by third parties to tackle addiction. 

All gambling operators must connect to CRUKS and check whether there is a registration there before a guest starts playing. If that is the case, the player should be denied access to the game.