KSA appoints addiction specialists as external advisors for Cruks

Bas Brons, Mieke Hoste and Marcel Marijnissen will now advise on the system, which allows consumers to self-exclude from gambling and for licensed operators to request involuntarily exclusion of a player direct with the KSA.

All licensed operators in the country are required to integrate with Cruks in order to see if any of their players are registered with the scheme.

Brons is a senior counsellor, practitioner and mental health care professional, specialising in gambling addiction treatment. For the past three years, Brons has worked for the Solutions-S Centre for Addiction Care and previously spent almost 11 years as a therapist, counsellor and coach at BBCoaching.

Hoste is a licensed clinical psychologist with experience of working with both adults and teenagers. She spent time working at Hart Hospital in Tienen in Belgium and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, also in Belgium.   

Marijnissen is an addiction specialist who currently serves as chief medical officer at the Hervitas addiction treatment centre in the Dutch city of Zeist. He also spent time as an addiction doctor at both the Triora Addiction Care facility and Solutions-S Centre for Addiction Care.

The triple appointment comes after a new Dutch government report published this week suggested that ordering unlicensed operators to stop passively accepting bets from Dutch customers has helped channel players to licensed igaming sites.

The report, presented to the Dutch parliament by Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker, included data on the number of visits to gambling websites recorded in the Netherlands from 1 October, when the country’s igaming market opened.

It also found that around 3,500 people had registered for Cruks as of 1 November.