17th Annual Gaming Industry Event KKF/IMGL

On Friday 8 April 2022, The Gaming & Gambling Practice Group of Kalff Katz & Franssen Attorneys-at-Law and the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) hosted the 17^th edition of the annual Gaming Industry Event at the Koninklijke Industrieele Groote Club. After more than two years of COVID-19 restrictions, the event finally returned. The event was covered by various media, including Gambling Compliance.

Justin Franssen (Partner at KKF) and Marc Ellinger (President of IMGL) opened the event, after which René Jansen (Chairman of the Board of the Netherlands Gambling Authority) and Fedor Meerts (Department Head Integrity & Gambling, Ministry of Justice and Security) took to the stage to discuss the recent developments in the field.

In his speech, René Jansen discussed the opening of the market for remote games of chance and developments on the advertising front in particular. A full transcript of the speech can be found on the website of the Netherlands Gambling Authority here. The main points of René Jansen’s speech are described below:

• Currently, there are 18 licence holders and a total of 30 pending licence applications, 14 of the applications were submitted in the last week of March, most likely due to the close of the cooling-off window on 1 April 2022. Up until now, the success rate for licence applicants is 1 out of 3.
• Advertising for remote games of chance took a flight and restraint was not exercised throughout all of the market; the result has been public backlash and parliamentary actions, leading to (looming) new restrictions on advertising to be imposed by Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind, as well as the introduction of further self-regulatory measures by trade organisations.
• The advertising policies of all, then 11, licence holders were reviewed and all of the policies were subject to warnings, comments or recommendations from the NGA.
• Gambling limits have been compliant with the letter of the law, but not always compliant with the spirit of the law; further action may be expected on this front.
• Unlicensed offering has greatly decreased over the past few months.
• There are now 643,000 player accounts in the Netherlands.
• 4th quarter 2021 market size was 185 million Euros (GGR).

Fedor Meerts looked back on the opening of the market and also looked ahead to the looming restrictions in the realm of advertising for remote games of chance. Key points:

• Upcoming restrictions on untargeted advertising.
• Prohibition on the use of role models.
• Enabling Electronic Money Institutions to be used for remote games of chance.
• Looking further, Fedor Meerts also discussed the modernization of the slot machine legislation, reforms in the lottery sector and the effectiveness of playing limits.

Finally, René Jansen and Fedor Meerts received questions from the audience, which questions mainly focused on the (perceived) disparity between the amount of advertising for (remote) games of chance by the state-owned operators and the private remote gambling operators.

Please contact us at gaming@kalffkatzfranssen.nl if you have any questions.