Online gambling soon possible on the Dutch market with ten companies

From Friday, ten gambling companies can legally offer online gambling in the Netherlands. The new gambling law takes effect on October 1, from when online gambling will no longer be banned in the country. The Gambling Authority will announce which ten companies will receive a license later this week, NOS reports.

The goal is that within three years' time, 80 percent of online gamblers in the Netherlands will play at a company with a license. At the moment, over 800 thousand Netherlands residents play on illegal sites, spending an estimated 500 million euros a year, according to the Gambling Authority.

"Many do not even know that it is illegal. There is no supervision at the moment. We cannot really intervene on how they gamble, Rene Jansen, chairman of the board of directors of the Gambling Authority, said to Nieuwsuur. According to him, the new gambling law changes that. "For the first time, we now have instruments with which we can really intervene."

A total of 29 largely Dutch companies applied for an online gambling license. Ten of them met the high requirements, Jansen said. "The game must be safe. Much must be done to prevent addiction. There must be anti money-laundering provisions. Suspicious gambling patterns must be detected. Providers must be able to monitor people's gaming behavior and tackle it. That takes a lot from companies that have applied for a license."