Published: 29.03.2020, 19:03
2 min read
The Holland Casino, which is the legal gambling monopoly in the Netherlands, has closed all 14 of its branches. The CEO, Erwin van Lambaart, recently confirmed that the casinos will be closed until the end of March – at the very least. He also stated that Holland Casino is carrying out this measure in accordance with orders from the government, as well as from the Dutch Institute of Health.
Normally, each Holland Casino branch facilitates over 100 employees and guests; this is why it’s of the utmost importance that the casinos close temporarily. It is just too risky to remain open otherwise.
This news comes on the heels of the Dutch Senate approving the Remote Gambling Bill. Unfortunately, the newly regulated iGaming industry will not be fully materialized until January 1st, 2021. Therefore, it seems that Dutch citizens will not be able to do any online gambling while waiting out the coronavirus.
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On the plus side, if all goes as planned, the opening of the new market in July of 2021 should bring the Netherlands ’ gaming industry some much-needed revenue. It’s estimated that revenue will reach 300 million euros within the first full year.
It’s also possible that, due to the coronavirus, the timeline of the market launch date will be pushed back. It has already been pushed back once. At the moment, license applications are supposed to start being processed in January of 2021, and the market will open in July of 2021. However, the market was previously scheduled to open in January of 2021, with license processing occurring 6 months prior to that. As of right now, it is unclear how much the COVID-19 crisis will push back the timeline, if at all.
The KSA is undergoing measures in order to prepare prospective licensees for the possibility of a delay. They recently released a statement disclosing that would-be applicants may experience delays in their application processing time. Furthermore, change requests will take longer to process. The statement did not give an estimate of delay time, however.
