Earlier this week, the Dutch Minister for Safety and Justice informed Dutch Parliament that the entry into force of the Remote Gambling Act (“RGA“) is now scheduled for 1 January 2021 (available in Dutch here). This means that the earlier anticipated entry into force-date of 1 July 2020 has been postponed with six months. After the entry into force of the RGA, operators will be able to apply for a remote gambling licence. The expected opening of the market is (again) expected to be six months after the entry into force of the RGA and thus on 1 July 2021.
In this same letter, some other topics are discussed, among which:
- the possibilities of taking down illegal online gambling offerings and the comment that such measures can only be used in a limited amount of instances;
- discussion of a complete ban on advertising for remote gambling and the statement from the Minister that such ban would not be introduced and that after entry into force of the RGA, the advertising situation will be closely monitored; and
- the Minister indicated that he might review the expected efficacy of the cooling down period in light of channelization-objective.
In a separate letter, the Minister has also indicated that, starting 1 January 2020, the failure to perform an age verification check, during registration, on players will become one of the prioritization-criteria that the Dutch Gambling Authority utilizes (letter available in Dutch here).
