The Dutch Remote Gambling Act is expected to come into effect on 1 March 2021 in stead of the previous target date 1 January 2021. In June Minister for Justice and Security Sander Dekker already confirmed a possible postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a couple of months. A letter from Minister Dekker of Justice and Security to the House of Representatives confirmes the delay of the target date for the Dutch Remote Gambling Act with two months.
Letter from Minister Dekker (Justice and Security)
The Dutch website BlackjackSpelregels.com discovered a letter from Minister Dekker of Justice and Security to the House of Representatives. In it, the Minister discusses the implementation of a number of motions but also the delay in target date of the Remote Gambling Act. In the last few months the Minister spoke with representatives of the Dutch Kansspelautoriteit, Minister of Health, Wellbeing en Sports, Addiction treatment and landbased operators. Most parties favor a quick opening of the Dutch gambling marketing, but landbased operators were hit hard bij de COVID-19 pandemic and had to close for three and a half months. They argue their preparations for the online part of their businesses we’re halted by the lockdown and expect not to be in time for the license application on 1 January 2021. Therefore the intended date of entry into force of the law has now been moved from 1 January 2021 to 1 March 2021. This is another delay as the Remote Gambling Act was postponed multiple times before and the last delay was for six months.
Also two months delay for openingdate Dutch market
On 19 February 2019 the Senate approved the Draf Bill on Remote Gambling. As a result, it will become possible to apply for a licence in the Netherlands for the purpose of offering online gambling. It is currently still illegal to offer such games. From 1 March 2021 interested parties can apply for a gambling licence and licence applications will be processed within six months. The Dutch online gambling and betting market will open half a year later. Therefore the expected opening date is also delayed by two months from 1 July 2021 to 1 September 2021.
Extension of cooling off period
With the postponement of the target dat form the Remote Gambling Act the Minister also decided the cooling-off period will be postponed with the same period of two months. The cooling-off period already was extended by two years and six months due to the previous delay. With the new delay de cooling off periode thus covers two years and eight months.
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