Dutch government praises KSA but stresses need for data-led future
Netherlands Gambling Authority lauded for its efforts to regulate the market but reminded to retain wider focus across sector
The Dutch government has praised the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) after a review of the body found it had “succeeded in [a] difficult period”.
The government ordered independent consultancy KWINK Groep to conduct a study into the KSA’s work between 2017 and 2021, encompassing the development of the regulation that led to the regulation of the Dutch market on 1 October 2021.
KWINK established that the KSA was able to carry out the “most urgent and mandatory work” concerning the implementation of the regulated market, and noted the regulator had scaled up both its remit and headcount, rising from 70 employees in 2017 to more than 90 in 2021.
However, the report did find some shortcomings in the KSA’s performance, which it pinpointed as a result of intense focus on the implementation of upcoming regulation in the study period.
KWINK found this focus had caused the KSA’s work on other areas to be “limited”, including supervision of country-specific games and the development of risk-based supervision practices.
Additionally, while KWINK noted the KSA had laid the foundations to become a data-led regulator, it needed to do more work to establish what steps need to be taken to drive the body to become truly data-led.
In delivering the KWINK report to the KSA, Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind said: “The KSA is a relatively young regulator, operating in a complex market. Looking back, the KSA made significant progress during the evaluation period in the online market.
“Looking ahead gives the evaluation starting points for the further development of the KSA and in its extension the gambling policy. I look with confidence to the further joint design of this,” he added.
René Jansen, KSA chair, said: “The evaluation gives the KSA good recommendations on how it can improve its effectiveness and efficiency. They fit in particularly well with the professionalisation that the organisation has already started.
“The challenge now is to formulate what further steps the KSA will take in the coming period towards supervision and enforcement based on data,” he added.
Jansen has also called for greater clarification on the working relationship between the Dutch government and the regulator around preventing gambling-related harm, and to establish what powers the KSA can be afforded to support local governments in tackling illegal land-based gambling