Online gambling is to be liberalized. The new Dutch Cabinet, formed by Mark Rutte, believes that in time this will rake in hundreds of million Euros yearly.
by Dennis Naaktgeboren
THE HAGUE, THURSDAY –
Online gambling is to be liberalized. The new Dutch Cabinet, formed by Mark Rutte, believes that in time this will rake in hundreds of million Euros yearly.
This was today disclosed by sources in The Hague. The right-wing cabinet plans to sell or auction licences to interested companies. The income realised from this has been estimated at an annual figure of 100 million Euro, but ultimately could even be as high as 270 million.
Currently the provision of Internet gaming or lotteries in this country is illegal. Much to the disgruntlement of popular Internet casinos of Ladbrokes, Unibet, PokerStars and PartyPoker. The Justice Department deals severely with banks and credit card companies facilitating payment transactions for foreign gambling sites. The Lotto is the only game that may be played online.
This hard-line policy led last year to a clash between the Ministry and the foreign Internet casinos. “This is an outrageous attempt by the Dutch government to protect its own state monopoly”, stated Mark Davies, director of Betfair, in an interview with this newspaper. The enraged gambling company filed a claim amounting to millions. Fraud Attempts by Betfair and Ladbrokes to enter the Dutch market were however dismissed by the European Court of Justice. The Court ruled that the Dutch Government was at liberty to ban online gambling in order to protect consumers and to combat fraud.
An attempt by Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin to award monopolist Holland Casino exclusive rights for the Internet also failed to come off the ground. That plan was rejected by the Senate.”
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