Dutch Government Paves the Way for Legalized Online Gambling

May 21, 2011 | News Category: Gaming Law

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There has been much in the news about online gambling legislation in the European Union for quite some time now. Although the European Commission is pushing member states to comply with the free market rules that the European Union follows for other forms of industry, there has been a large amount of resistance from many of the European Union member states.

At this time, the European Commission is awaiting the results of the Green Paper that they have commissioned to investigate the issues surrounding the legalization of online gambling.

While there has been much resistance to liberalizing the European online gambling market, the Netherlands looks set to do so in the near, rather than in the distant future. The Dutch government does not seem to feel the need to wait until the results of the European Commission's Green Paper are in, and the possibility of then receiving a directive from the European Commission to open up its online gambling market.

The new coalition government in the Netherlands is the most recent European Union member state to have made the decision to work towards regulating the online gambling market in its country. Not only does the Dutch government plan to regulate the market, but there are also indications that there will be greater online gambling freedoms granted than most would have expected.

The Dutch government has already given its approval to a number of online gambling operators to their requests to be licensed in the Netherlands. The companies include those that offer online casinos, online bingo, online poker, and online sports betting. This move could change much of the way that online gambling is seen in the European Union. It could in fact transform the industry somewhat.

Before this decision was made, there had been months of disagreements regarding the guidelines for this issue in the Netherlands. At this time, the online gambling that is available to the Dutch market is a government owned monopoly that only offers their online gambling services to those who are located in the Netherlands. The Dutch government was even taken to the European Union Court of Justice recently with others claiming that the Netherlands did not follow European Union regulations. However, all this changed when the new coalition government came into power.

The new government sees the economic benefits that can be gained from offering legalized and regulated online gambling. At this time, however, Dutch banks are still denying financial transactions between online gambling operators or their representatives and the players. It now seems that it will just be a matter of time before these issues are dealt with.