The Gambling Authority publishes draft policy rule on the cooling off period criteria that will form part of the reliability test

The draft policy rule was drawn up taking into account the Postema Motion, which was passed by the Dutch Senate on 19 February 2019 (during voting in the context of the Remote Gambling Act). The draft policy rule states that the reliability of an operator who applies for a remote gambling licence is in any case not beyond a doubt, if:

“the applicant in the two years prior to the date on which the Gambling Authority received the application or during the process of the application,

offered remote games of chances without the requisite licence

and in those two years and/or during the process of the application, at any time, at least one of the following criteria is met:

1. a) the offer was entirely or partially made via a website with a .nl extension;
2. b) the offer was entirely or partially available in the Dutch language;
3. c) advertisements were made in regard to the offer on TV, radio or printed media directed towards the Dutch market;
4. d) domain names with references to things closely associated with the Netherlands in combination with references to gambling were used for the offer;
5. e) the website(s) on which the offer was available contained one or more characteristics from which it can be concluded that the offer was targeted at the Netherlands;
6. f) for the purpose of the offered games of chance, payment methods which are solely or primarily used by Dutch residents could be used.”

This draft policy will form part of a broader policy rule regarding the reliability assessment of the licence applicant and, moreover, is temporary in nature. The NGA has indicated that, in principle, it will expire on 1 July 2021, provided that the NGA’s current expectation proves correct and remote gambling licence applications can be submitted with effect from 1 July 2020. The chairman of the Gambling Authority expressed this expectation in a previous press release. The NGA expects the Remote Gambling Act to enter into force on 1 July 2020. This is consistent with the prospect of the legalised Dutch gambling market opening on 1 January 2021.

If you have any questions regarding the above or about the upcoming licence application procedure for remote games of chance, please feel free to contact us.