Lawmakers in Dutch are advocating for creating new measures aimed at prohibiting illegal gambling such as blocking websites and targeting payment providers, social media platforms and affiliates.
Lawmakers from various parties took part in the three-hour debate during which the issue of the black market including advertisements and the gambling minimum age was discussed.
According to the Justice Secretary KT van Bruggen, they are currently working on legislation which would lead to a DNS blocking of illegal gambling websites and at the same time collect public opinions on it for the implementation in 2027.
This discussion is held after the estimates from Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) which states that less than 50% of gamblers have shifted to the legal gambling services.
The new theme which came out during the discussions was the illegal gambling advertisements in social media. As was mentioned by Mr. Van Bruggen, Meta and Google showed their readiness to cooperate with the government.
Another argument raised during the discussions was the need for the government to increase the legal gambling age from 18 to 21 since this concern refers to high-risk gambling products such as online slot games.
Finally, as said by Mr. Van Bruggen, the government would need to analyze age limit. The issue is expected to be addressed in future government progress reports.