In our continuing series on emerging remote gaming legislation in the Netherlands, Younes Moussaoui of Kalff Katz & Franssen provides a detailed update.
ON March 5, 2014, a revised version of the Dutch remote gaming bill was notified to the European Commission.
This version is the result of a public consultation of the draft remote gaming bill (“consultation text”) in the summer of 2013 and the approximately 90 received contributions from both national and international stakeholders. The revised remote gaming bill was approved by the council of ministers on February 14, 2014. Afterwards, the bill was sent to the council of state for advice and to the EC for notification, upon which the bill was published and the revisions became public knowledge.
The ministry of security and justice (“ministry”) has amended the consultation text on several matters and while some are beneficial for the remote gaming sector, others are clearly not. This article does not aim to provide a full list of all changes, but merely to discuss the most striking changes that involve (i) the aimed level of channelisation, (ii) server requirements, and (iii) product scope.
Level of channelisation
Firstly, the ministry stated in the explanatory memorandum of the consultation text that it aimed for a level of channelisation of 75 per cent. Many stakeholders stated in their consultation contribution that this level of channelisation lacked ambition and also entailed that the ministry accepts that 25 per cent of Dutch consumers will play at locally unlicensed operators.
Read the full article in issue 2 of iNTERGAMINGi
