Online gambling nearly legal in Netherlands

Coalition parties VVD and PvdA submitted a proposal to the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, for a uniform tax rate for gambling. The parties propose that gambling be taxed at 29 percent, both online and in casinos, the Telegraaf reports. According to the newspaper, this proposal brings the legalization of online gambling a step closer. The cabinet's previous plan wanted online gamblers to pay a lower gaming tax than those who gamble in actual casinos. The Tweede Kamer saw this as unfair. The government expects that legalizing online gambling will bring in more tax revenue. If this is indeed the case, the plan is to drop the tax to 25 percent over three years. A recent study by Motivaction revealed that Dutch wager nearly 500 million euros at online gambling sites on an annual basis.