Dutch regulator calls egaming summit
Operators receive invite to meeting in The Hague to continue consultation on egaming regulations.
The Dutch regulator has invited international companies interested in becoming licensed in the country’s future egaming market to take part in a consultation meeting in The Hague later this month.
In a meeting scheduled for 28 January, the Netherlands Gaming Authority (NGA) will bring together a select group of companies to discuss how best they should regulate online gambling.
Recipients of the letter, signed by NGA board member Dr Paul Tang, must respond to a number of questions before attending. The questions focus on the key aspects what they perceive as an acceptable tax rate, how many licences they would expect to be handed out, and how player ID verification should be managed.
The meeting is another step forward from the regulator, which confirmed its intentions to legalise egaming in the country in October last year. It is understood members of the NGA, along with government officials working on the matter, have also held fact-finding discussions with fellow European regulators.
The country’s new coalition government confirmed plans to begin issuing egaming licences before the end of its current term in October, with leaders Mark Rutte and Diederik Samson claiming a tax rate of 29% of GPT would raise 31m per annum as part of wider-ranging anti-austerity measures in the European Union member state. However it is widely agreed that this rate “ currently applied to land-based gaming “ is likely to be lowered.
According to research firm and eGR data partners H2 Gambling Capital, a regulated Dutch interactive market would be worth 223m by 2015.
eGaming Review exclusively revealed in October that the country was close to introducing a draft egaming bill for the first time. According to sources, the draft is to be issued to industry stakeholders early this year for consultation, with most expecting it to resemble the Danish model in terms of taxation and number of licences handed out.
Plans for Dutch egaming regulation first surfaced in October 2010, when the Dutch government confirmed that it intended to issue online gaming licences in an attempt to regulate an industry which could bring in 10m a year from the auctioning of licences alone.