Speech Michel Groothuizen, 17 juli 2024

Speech iGB Live! 2024

Good morning everybody,

First of all, I would like to thank the organisers for allowing me to be here today. This is the first time I have had the opportunity to address you, the gambling operators, in my new role as chairman of the board of the Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, Ksa), and of course I am seizing it with both hands.

While I am probably entirely new to you, the gambling market is not entirely new to me. Before 2015, I worked at the Ministry of Justice, where I was responsible, among other things, for setting up the same Gambling Authority (Ksa) as the one I now chair. At that time, the political intention was still to open the online market at the same time, but as you probably know, that took a few more years. I am glad that I now get to experience close-up how the market has evolved in the meantime.

Indeed, the gambling market is an incredibly dynamic one. A lot has happened since I worked on the file and so there is still a lot for me to learn. I look forward to the conversations I will have today and in the future with gambling operators, international regulatory colleagues, legislators and regulators, among others, many of whom I am sure are already here.

Rene Jansen, my predecessor often combined the outlining of trends in the Dutch market with an expression of his concerns: about the duty of care, about illegal supply, about laws and regulations, and so on. Today, as befits a good regulator, I will do no differently. I would be happy to discuss with you how the Authority (Ksa) will further scale up its supervision of the online duty of care in the coming year, and how we have already made an initial foray into this with the new policy rule. Of course, I also see the threat of the increasing number of  laws and regulations and the impact on channelisation, so the market for illegal gambling will also be considered. Since we are in an international gathering here, I will also elaborate on the global collaborations that we have. In short: familiar, solid content with hopefully a fresh, updated look. A bit like myself, if you like.

Let me start with one of our most important topics: the illegal gambling market. I realise I am speaking today for gambling operators from all over the world. This includes gambling operators that do not have a licence from us (yet). For those I say: I trust you will do everything you can to exclude Dutch players, and if not, our enforcement officers will make sure you do feel compelled to do so as soon as possible. Illegal gambling has been a major  issue (?) for some time now, and given the developments we are seeing, I understand that very well.

We have a licensed gambling market in the Netherlands because we are convinced  gambling will always exist. That those who really want to gamble will do so anyway. From that point of view, a licensed gambling market ensures that those players are protected. Against unfair play anyway, but also, more importantly, against life-disrupting addiction. We see that illegal operators try to stretch the limits of what is permissible further and further. And we continue to be amazed at how far some gambling operators go.

Recently, one of our country's leading mental health knowledge institutes reported that 1 in 10 underage boys has gambled for money. Children! Lack of adequate age verification by illegal operators is an extremely urgent problem. The brains of children and young adults are still developing, making addiction more likely later in life. Failure to check the age of players is a major aggravating factor when it comes to fines.

What strikes me is that there are not only illegal operators who simply choose not to serve our Dutch market, but there are also illegal operators who act completely lawlessly. The latter are really the pirates of this industry. Pirates who, moreover, don't seem to shy away from anything. A week before I took office as chairman of the board, I was confronted with a story about advertisements in which young people cry about how they contemplated suicide until they became stinking rich with a certain app. In my opinion, this is shocking and highly inappropriate advertising. But there is more outrageous behaviour: I was told by my staff there are illegal operators abusing the official logo of our organisation, the Kansspelautoriteit, surreptitiously advertising via Google Maps and ads targeting the very vulnerable group of players registered in the national exclusion register (Cruks). That simply beggars belief.

I know that officers of my  Authority  take reports of this kind of abuse seriously and investigate it extensively. In addressing these gambling operators, we work closely with Google and Meta, among others. We also address hosting providers when we do not get a response from a gambling operator. We are making every effort to bring down illegal gambling as soon as possible. I thought that as chair of the Netherlands Gambling Authority  I would have the power to have websites taken down, but that turned out not to be the case. At least not yet. This possibility would definitely strengthen our supervision and is thus a key discussion point for me when the Remote Gambling Act (Wet Kansspelen op Afstand, Koa) is reviewed later this year.

The power of the internet is that it connects people from all over the world, regardless of their location. Those who need something can get it from anywhere in the world. The same applies to online gambling. Tackling illegal gambling does not stop at the border. That is why it is important not to let our supervision stop at the border either. Through international cooperation and knowledge-sharing, we can better tighten the net around illegal gambling. We do this, for example, through our participation in the Gambling Regulators European Forum, GREF, and the International Association of Gaming Regulators, IAGR. My predecessor played an active role there, and I definitely intend to do the same. I hear good stories from our staff from different disciplines about the usefulness and need for international working groups for tackling illegal gambling, data-driven supervision and match-fixing.

In addition, we continue to strengthen our cooperation with specific regulators. We currently have amemoranda of understanding, or MOU, with five countries. In these cooperation agreements, we and the other regulator agree to help each other perform our task to the best of our ability in the field of supervision and enforcement, including by sharing data and important information. We already do this with Belgium, France, Malta, Sweden and the UK and have gained a lot of experience. Where such an MOU, as I understand it, sometimes just serves as an official confirmation of an existing relationship, in other instances it is meant as a means to compel cooperation. There is still a world to win in this area, so I look forward to engaging with international regulators.

A licensed gambling market stands or falls on a robust approach to the illegal market. But that means there must be an attractive and reliable legal option in return. As I have said before, in the ideal gambling market players are adequately protected. In recent years, we have seen that this is unfortunately not always the case. I too have read the news stories about big losses, and they worry me. Our Authority  is therefore expanding its supervision of licensed gambling in the coming year.

My predecessor made a start on setting up a new Online Duty of Care unit. Some 10 or 15 new regulators will focus entirely on duty-of-care compliance starting from 1 September. As far as I am concerned, we will see an end to excesses as soon as possible. The officers of this unit  will work on firm sanctions and penalty procedures, as well as faster supervision. We will send out warning letters more often and deliver short, quick blows, such as with an order subject to a penalty.

This unit also focuses on the implementation of our renewed Policy Rule on Responsible Gambling (Beleidsregel Verantwoord spelen). This has now been implemented for the most part. The more far-reaching changes should be in place by October this year. With the introduction of a financial deposit limit, a big step has been taken to prevent players from incurring large losses. When depositing a certain amount, a player must show that he can afford it before he can continue playing. The Authority  is taking another important step by being stricter on 'real-time' monitoring of gambling behaviour. Gambling operators must be able to notice, analyse and act on a signal of excessive gambling within one hour at the latest. This requirement applies 24/7. This means that if someone decides to gamble 5,000 euros in the middle of the night, there is no waiting until the next morning before intervention. Compliance with the duty of care requires the gambling operator to be alert day and night.

With this new package of measures, we will ensure that players in the Dutch market are better protected. In addition, in the run-up to the review of the Remote Gambling Act, we are talking to the government, especially the new secretary of state, to see what should change on their side. In doing so, we are of course keen on the implications of possible expansion of laws and regulations. When we see that channelisation is declining or gambling operators are ignoring the Dutch market, we will sound the alarm. This also applies to issues where we are not in charge ourselves, such as the plans to increase tax on gambling. If I am given good reasons to believe that this increase is having a negative effect on channelisation and strengthening the position of illegal operators in our market, I will immediately raise the alarm.

Another important part of the review of the Remote Gambling Act is advertising legislation. A total ban on advertising has been called for by the House of Representatives. My predecessor spoke out firmly against that intention, and I would like to repeat those words here. To make and keep a licensed market attractive, gambling operators must be able to present themselves to players up to a certain level. Although we are now dealing with new ministers, our message has not changed at all.

So we will keep pushing this in our discussions with the secretary of state. We are keen on the regulations around advertising that have already been introduced, and their effectiveness. In our latest survey on the state of the online market, I saw that the ban on untargeted advertising has resulted in non-gamblers being less likely to visit a gambling website. I look forward to seeing if we can draw the same conclusion again in our next report in the autumn, because that says something about the effectiveness of the legislation.

In the context of advertising, I would like to pay a compliment. In his speech at Gaming in Holland in June, René Jansen warned against a flood of advertising around the European Championship, among other things. I dare say that when we start looking at advertising budgets in our next monitor, there will have been significant investment in advertising during this period. Although I have yet to see any concrete figures, as far as I am concerned, this is a prediction with a high probability and therefore low odds. We called on gambling operators to show their best side, and yes, they have shown it.

But this did involve closely following laws and regulations. We kept a watchful eye on possible breaches of the rules by both legal and illegal operators, but saw (almost ) no legal operators cross the line. That, in addition to the torrent of warnings we issue as a regulator, is also worth mentioning as far as I am concerned.

As I do not want to accustom you to too much praise, this also brings me to the end of my speech. I am honoured to stand here as your new regulator. I am looking forward to what lies ahead, in both the opportunities and the challenges. The first challenge follows now, as I promised the organisation I would subject myself to a barrage of questions after my speech. Wish me luck!

Thank you for your attention!