Those of us who are familiar with the Dutch gambling law, know that the part about online gambling is a complicated one. For years the government has been trying to agree on a new legislation. That’s why we are asking the question; Is gokken op Nederlandse online casinos legal? Which is basically a translation of the question whether or not gambling on Dutch casinos is legal. This has been a big question mark for the longest time. Actually, from the moment since online gambling became a topic on the political agenda of the Netherlands.

Casinos were allowed

Because before that time, there was no legislation on online gambling at all. This is why the government could do nothing but allow gokken op nederlandse online casinos. There were many casinos targeting this market, even though they operated from casino paradise Malta. And the thing is, they were very successful at it. Dutch players were very lucrative for casinos that did everything they could to retain them. Which did not go unnoticed by the government, who after a while, decided to put a stop to it. Right now it is quite strict and it’s likely that within a year or two the first casinos will receive their license.

Government casino monopoly

At first when the gambling authority, or the KSA, started forbidding gokken op Nederlanse online casinos they were a lot of theories going around about why. One of the most talked about theories was that the KSA wanted to maintain the monopoly that Holland Casino had had with land based casinos and even expand that monopoly to the internet. Another theory was that Holland Casino was about to be sold and it wanted to launch an online casino before that happened to make some extra cash. None of these rumours turned out to be true.

Fines for casinos

However, that didn’t mean that casinos wouldn’t be punished if breaking the law. Even casino affiliates weren’t safe from the KSA. At first, the organisation was quite lenient with online casinos. But as the topic became more important, the rules became stricter. At first Dutch players could not be advertised to. Then the rules got worse by forbidding casino names in the language or even information or games in Dutch. Every casino that didn’t obey got a hefty fine. This led to many casinos closing their doors of having to change their names. A lot of casino affiliates had to end their activities as well, as these fines were no picnic either.

What about casinos nowadays?

Nowadays there’s a lot less stress as a date has been set for when the first casino licenses can be requested and when they can expect to be given out. The pressure has been off, also for the KSA that has been allowing the last few casinos that target the forbidden audience to continue their activities. The same goes for casino affiliates. But the problems are nowhere near finished. For example, the operator has to pay a tax of 29% of all profits. This is already making it very hard to become profitable. But then there are also the setup cost for requesting a license. These costs together are already nearly €1 million. And for the maintenance a casino pays the same. Which makes it near impossible for a small casino to succeed. If you want to know more about this, you can check our other page about gratis gokken.