Recap Annual Gaming Industry Event 2019

The annual event was, once again, organised by the Gaming Practice Group of Kalff Katz & Franssen Attorneys-at-Law and the the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL).

The fifteenth edition of the invitation-only event was not only a special one, but with 178 registered guests also the biggest thus far. Among the guests were inter alia (inter)national regulators, incumbents and remote and land based market entrants, software providers, trade associations, PSPs, and marketing- and media companies from the national and international gaming and gambling sector.

Justin Franssen kicked off by giving a brief outline of the (procedural) history of the Remote Gambling Bill, in which he made a strong appeal to the Dutch Senate to finally introduce a regulatory regime for remote gaming by proclaiming the words “get it over with”.      

Thereafter Jamie Nettleton (Partner at Addisons Lawyers and President of IMGL) provided those present with more information about the IMGL and in addition commented on the regulatory situation in Australia including a brief comparative law analysis with the Netherlands. 

This year René Jansen (Chairman of the Netherlands Gambling Authority) and Juan Espinoza Garcia (Director General de Ordenación del Juego) were invited as speakers. For René Jansen it was a rather special occasion, as he made his first public appearance as new chairman of the board of the Netherlands Gambling Authority.

Juan Espinoza Garcia took the lead and focused his presentation on the transitional period of (regulating) the Spanish remote gambling market, a smooth transition from a .com to an .es regulated environment. In addition he discussed the correlation between the gambling tax rate and the channelization rate.

Finally, René Jansen took a detailed look in his speech at the “Duty of Care Manual”(Leidraad Zorgplicht) and discussed the fact that the Netherlands Gambling Authority and the (online) gambling operators have a joint responsibility to prevent gambling addiction. He announced that the draft guidelines will be put out for a public consultation in March 2019. Furthermore, he also announced that before the summer of 2019 they will release the draft subordinate regulations of the remote gaming licensing process for a public consultation.

After the closing remarks of the speakers, all attendees of the national and international gambling sector were invited for an informal reception to discuss the latest developments in the (Dutch) gambling sector.