Netherlands expects to grant 35 online gambling licences
The KSA said it expects to receive around 40 licence applications, many of which will come from international operators, when the Remote Gambling Act comes into effect on 1 April.
The regulator has stated this in its annual report 2020, alongside key requirements for licence holders, and the additional powers granted to the KSA to tackle illegal gambling activities.
The report reaffimed the importance for operators to abide by the parts of the Remote Gambling Act concerning addiction prevention and consumer protection.
Notably, all operators must check players against the ‘Cruks’ self-exclusion database, as well as providing the Control Database (CDB) with their own data captured from games, allowing the KSA to carry out remote monitoring of game systems.
Cruks and the CDB went into construction in 2020, with follow-up actions still required in the early months of 2021 to make the systems operational.
After a tender process in 2020, IT and business consultancy Netcompany has taken on management of the systems.
An extension of the gambling levy will also be used to set up an Addiction Prevention Fund, with proceeds being used to provide anonymous treatment of gambling addiction, and research prevention and treatment.
The KSA also revealed in the report that it made €8.2m in gambling taxes in 2020, up 12.3% plus €644,000 from fees, down 41.5%.
The report also mentioned licensing data for slot arcades, where the KSa granted 43 permits in 2020 and denied nine. A further 10 applications were withdrawn while seven applications were apporved after changes were implemented.
The regulator added that there was a decrease in online gambling web traffic throughout 2020, which it said was due to sports cancellations.
The Remote Gambling Act was originally supposed to come into effect on 1 July 2020, but has been delayed three times.