| Online Poker In Holland Recommended To Be Legalised |
A report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to review the country's online gambling policy was published yesterday and found in favour of legalising poker in Holland.The members of the Jansen Committee, set up last September by the Dutch Ministry of Justice in order to construct a complete review of the current internet gambling laws, was comprised of legal experts and Dutch justice and home affairs ministers.
The report revealed that the board recommended the legalisation of online poker despite maintaining that other forms of online gambling such as casino, bingo and sports betting were still to be considered off-limits.
The only sports betting that is allowed in Holland is through the firm De Lotto, which has been sanctioned by the government to hold a sports betting monopoly. Ladbrokes and Betfair took De Lotto and the Dutch government to the European Court of Justice in June but failed to overthrow De Lotto's Dutch stranglehold.
Poker was recommended as being the only new online gambling addition to be legalised due to its great popularity. However, with the existence of many popular and well-established online poker sites, the Dutch government felt it wasn't a viable option to take suit from their current national lottery and sports betting state-sanctioned monopolies (which were both re-backed by the commission).
“The Commission doubts that a single new entrant in the poker market will be able to capture a significant market share based on the illegal operators, and sees a monopoly and therefore an insufficient basis for a successful channelling.
“For this reason, the Commission recommends a new 'Internet system'. This regime should be explicitly designed to bring illegal poker operators under a legal regime, as was successfully done with the introduction of slot machines regime, (and) must be based on a limited number of permits given to a term – limited and periodically allocated through an open and transparent process.”
This report is just another in the line of advances in legalising online poker around the globe as Holland now joins the U.S, Italy and France as recent European countries to legalise online poker.
However, The Remote Gambling Association, a trade association based in London for licensed gambling companies throughout the UK and Europe, were dismayed by the lack of support for legalising other forms of online gambling e.g. casinos and non-government sports betting.
Chief Executive of the RGA, Clive Hawkswood said: “This is clearly a missed opportunity to follow the same path as other jurisdictions, such as Denmark, which do not seek to discriminate against different forms of gambling and recognise that all are capable of being properly regulated
“It would be churlish of us not to welcome the poker opening, if it is granted in a viable way, but it appears as an opportunity missed for other segments. If consumer protection rather than market protectionism is the real policy objective then this recommendation should embrace other areas.”
< Back to news index