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The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) will not rush to enforce the country’s impending ban on non-targeted advertising, in part because it does not yet know exactly how it will work in practice, its chief executive has said.
From July 1, all forms of so-called non-targeted ads for online gambling will be illegal in the Netherlands, meaning an effective ban on all forms of TV, radio and billboard advertising.
Sponsorships agreed before the ban is in effect can continue until July next year, while sports sponsorships will continue until Summer 2025.
Where online gambling marketing exists in the future, advertisers must be confident that 95 percent of its audience are not under 24 or part of another vulnerable group.
Dutch licence holders have petitioned the KSA for specific guidance on how to ensure they comply with the new rules, but the authority has offered little in the way of specifics so far.
That is, in part, according to its chief executive, because the regulator is taking a wait-and-see approach to the new regime.
“Like the industry, we have to find our way in this,” said Rene Jansen, chair of the KSA, speaking at the Gambling in Holland conference in Amsterdam on Thursday (June 8).
Jansen also reassured the industry that it will not leap to enforce against operators trying their best to navigate the new rules, but emphasised that the ultimate responsibility for working out how to comply with the law rests with operators.
“The industry is waiting for a sense of direction,” said Alan Littler, a lawyer with Kalff, Katz and Franssen.
He advised that operators looking for ways to evidence that they are meeting the 95 percent targeting threshold should use Google Analytics or one of the other tools mentioned explicitly in amendments to the Gambling Act.
The law, he said, requires operators to use the “best available techniques”, the meaning of which could change over time as technology evolves.
“The sector is going to have to manage with the information it has today,” he said.
Jansen advised operators to take a precautionary approach.
If you are not sure that an advert will meet the 95 percent threshold, do not run it, he told operators.
“Find a way, but don’t seek the boundaries,” he said, warning that public confidence in the gambling industry was “fragile” and that too many public violations of the new ad rules would inevitably lead to further action by the government.
Jansen was firmer on an existing requirement that operators connect to the regulator’s so-called “data vault” to allow officials to scrutinise the way in which operators are fulfilling their duty of care to customers.
The KSA is prepared to revoke the licence of any operator that is non-compliant.
Jansen also said that the regulator will release the results of research into how operators treat vulnerable customers this summer.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice, which oversees gambling in the Netherlands, is gearing up for more changes to the law later this year.
New amendments would be focused on player protection and are likely to include setting an upper threshold on loss limits, which are currently set manually by players on sign-up, said Fedor Meerts, the head of gambling policy at the ministry.
Officials are also gearing up for a 2024 evaluation of the market, which was baked into the new Gambling Act that took effect in 2021.
