The Nationaal Rapporteur Verslavingen (NRV), or the Netherlands’ National Rapporteur on Addictions, has published a report with 22 recommendations on how to limit and prevent gambling-related harm.
Written by Arnt F.A. Schellekens, a Professor of Addiction and Psychiatry at Radboud University, the report splits the tenets into ten different categories, including banking, marketing and prevention.
The full list of points includes points such as improving the co-operation between operators and healthcare providers, the creation of an addiction prevention policy by independent experts and making operators liable if they fail to carry out their duty of care.
In relation to player limits, the NRV has requested that the country mirror policies introduced in Germany.
These would include deposit, time, balance and loss limits that would be fixed across all players.
The only demographic that would have a different allowance would be young adults, who could be subjected to stricter measures.
Germany isn’t the only country that the NRV mentioned, as the report also listed Belgium and Italy as other countries it wanted to take inspiration from, with regard to marketing.
While Belgium banned personalised gambling advertising earlier this year, meaning that only people who are actively looking for operators may find advertising for them, Italy has a complete ban on gambling advertising.
In the report, Schellekens said: “I believe that the necessary policy adjustments are urgent. Online gambling will be something that we continue to pay attention to in the coming years.
“Preventing gambling damage and taking care of those who are in trouble because of gambling has to come first and must be a priority.”
Earlier this year, Peter Paul de Goeij, Managing Director of the Netherlands Online Gambling Association (NOGA), spoke to Gambling Insider about the regulatory issues in the Dutch market that will affect sports betting companies.
