Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch gambling regulator, has a message for operators as they get ready for the upcoming World Cup – avoid a “bombardment of advertising.”
In a recent blog, KSA chairman René Jansen warned operators that although severe limits on gambling advertisements won’t be in effect when the World Cup takes place in December, that operators should act like those laws are already in effect. He also warned them that he has the full support of Minister of Justice Franc Weerwind, a notorious anti-gambling advocate.
Jansen is clearly trying to keep the Netherlands from experiencing the same kind of gambling advertisement overload that’s been experienced recently in the United States, and more notoriously a few years back in Australia. “I just hope that the underlying message has got through to the gambling providers – that is: there is a limit to what society accepts. This was clearly exceeded by the sector after the opening of the legal online gambling market. The industry as a whole and individual gambling companies individually have not excelled in displaying well-considered behaviour,” he said.
The Minister then went full Dutch on the operators saying, “There is an old Dutch saying that applies here: better to turn halfway than to be completely astray. A new tidal wave of advertising would mean an extra blow to the image of the sector and perhaps the prelude to even more far-reaching regulation of what is allowed in the field of advertising. I’d say don’t let it get to that point.”
In short, Dutch-facing operators need to really chill out on the World Cup advertising or face serious consequences next year.