Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind has announced that the cabinet wants to take substantial measures against advertisements from Dutch gambling sites, despite the rules that the industry has already imposed on itself since 1 October 2021. The minister is currently working on a proposal for a legal prohibition on “unfocused advertising For risky games of chance ”, but it will take at least another year before the legislation is actually changed.
The process of the motion
The news that Minister Weerwind would send a letter to the House with a proposal for a ban on gambling advertisements was announced last Friday. Experts in the field of legislative proposals already indicated that one and a half to two years could last before the proposal was completed and also implemented.
In the letter from the minister, who was sent today, Weerwind indicated that he wants to complete his proposal in the summer. Once this has happened, the motion will be consulted in which citizens and stakeholders can give feedback on it. After all, the proposal will be sent to the Upper and Lower House for a final decision.
Fast payoutmore role models
A large part of the motion is a whole ban on the use of role models in gambling advertisements, which should already enter into June 2022. The commercials of gambling sites that can be seen a lot at the moment almost only use role models such as former football players Andy van der Meijde for Betcity.nl and Wesley Sneijder for Toto. Minister Weerwind said about this in an interview with Het Financieele Dagblad the following:
“The law sets standards for the use of role models. They may not be aimed at young people who are 25 years old or younger. But we see that the sector is stretching the boundaries. They do not use a well-known football player of the moment, but former footballers who are still very popular with a young audience. My conclusion is that we have to set sharp, clear standards. So we will stop role models. "
Changes in gambling advertisements
In addition, the Minister of Legal Protection indicates in his letter that gambling sites will also have to set rules himself, such as the agreements not to advertise on the radio, in printed media or the outdoor space.
Also have online Casino’s Agreed not to broadcast their commercials on television after 10 p.m. This limit was previously set at 21:00 after gambling sites had received a lot of criticism from the media and politics about the large amount of television advertisements that were shown. Finally, the new slogan of the industry is “What does gambling cost you? Stop on time 18+ ”from now on to see at the end of every commercial.
Negative attention
It took long after the opening of the online gambling market before the media and political negative attention were paid to the many gambling advertisements. For example, former Legal Protection Sander Dekker did not find an advertising ban on the problem for the problem, but in the end the prohibition was introduced by the House a day later.
After this decision, the role of Minister of Legal Protection was transferred to Franc Weerwind, who was soon questioned by MP Michiel van Nispen about the progress of the prohibition. Despite the halving in gambling advertisements since the decision, the lack of updates led to an interpellation debate to still receive information about this from Weerwind.