183 companies register interest in Dutch igaming licence

A total of 183 businesses have registered their interest in applying for an online gaming licence in the Netherlands, according to the country’s gambling regulator.

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) asked companies eager to secure a Dutch licence to register their interest online between June 5 and June 21. On June 17 it then reported that 79 companies had registered their interest on June 17. This, it said, had jumped to 125 by June 20, with a further 58 stating their intention to apply before the June 21 deadline.

More than half (89) of the registrants are foreign operators, of which 83 already hold some form of igaming licence in another country. A further 74 prospective applicants are active in the Dutch land-based gaming market.

However the regulator said that despite the high level of interest, it expected to the final number of licences issued to be significantly lower. The number of approved companies would be reduced by strict due diligence checks and significant financial costs, it explained.

Applicants will be expected to pay a €45,000 fee, then a €830,000 guarantee if they are approved to operate in the market. Operators will also be subject to in-depth probity checks, and will be required to fulfil a number of conditions such as setting out an addiction prevention policy, quality assurance processes and identity verification measures.

The KSA is currently developing the licensing process, with a view to accepting applications shortly after the Netherlands Remote Gambling Act passes into law. With work underway on technical regulations, and reaching a consensus on whether to ban operators that were found to have breached the current prohibition on igaming, it is expected to be finalised and brought into effect from July 1, 2020.

At this point, the regulator will be able to begin processing applications, with a view to opening the market on January 1, 2021.