Dutch regulator eases fears over egaming delay

The Dutch gaming regulator dismissed fears over a potential delay to its egaming regulation after politicians put back the deadline for written discussions until the end of October.

It had been expected that the country’s parliament would discuss the new gambling Bill in September following its passing by the Council of Ministers in February, however this has now been rescheduled.

Speaking to eGaming Review this morning Jan Suyver, chairman of the Dutch regulator Kansspeautoriteit, played down fears of a delay and insisted it was “completely usual” for parliament to take a month or two to put together its first reaction to the draft Bill.

“It does not change my expectation that Tweede Kamer [parliament] might vote [in] early 2015 after completing the written preparation process,” he added.

Following that the Dutch Eerste Kamer (House of Lords) is expected to vote on the Bill before 2015’s summer recess, allowing for the reforms to come into effect next July at the earliest, or by 1 January 2016.

It has also been suggested that a landmark legal case filed in Denmark could have implications on Dutch regulation, posing further problems for the process.

Denmark’s Royal Scandinavian Casino filed a complaint to the European Court of Justice in December 2011 questioning the legality of online operators being subject to a lower tax rate than land-based establishments and an ECJ ruling is expected on 26 September.

The Netherlands also intends to implement a dual tax rate under its reforms, a move criticised by the country’s Labour Party and in particular MP Mei Li Vos, who said her party would withdraw support of the Bill if the rates for online and offline products were not equal.

Suyver said it was too early to predict any possible implications on the Dutch bill, but said taxation posed a “great political problem” for the Bill and that the situation in Denmark would be “important” moving forward.