Charities have a great interest in the current gambling policy because a large part of the proceeds is mandatory for these goals. For example, social charities receive more than € 580 million from the lottery sector every year. With this, we immediately highlight the social character of gambling in a positive sense, or rather the social importance of online gambling sites like QQSlot.
Nevertheless, gambling does not only have a positive character, because society also clearly suffers from gambling. From addicts, for example, to people who even have money problems, and so on. Which brings us to the question: does online gambling serve the social interest?
Counterproductive effect of legalization?
Online gambling is still viewed with great danger. A frequently mentioned danger is the aforementioned risk of addiction. The truth is that addiction problems do exist. Where gambling takes place, excessive gaming behavior will also take place. The answer to this is regulation and prevention and that is also the reason that the new gambling law has been active since 1 April 2021. By channeling players to legal casinos, player behavior can be better mapped out. Is it played at foreign, non-legalized casinos? Then the view over those players disappears because it is not checked whether or not they are allowed to gamble. With the CRUKS register, legalized casinos check via the BSN number whether a player is allowed to gamble or whether he or she is on a black list and is not allowed to play.
Divisions in politics over the social interest
That does not alter the fact that for a long time politics was divided about whether or not to legalize online gambling and its social importance. This has, among other things, ensured that the adoption of the new gambling law has taken so long. The law would only be adopted in February 2019, after which it would only take effect 2 years later in April 2021. On topics such as advertising, there are still differences of opinion in politics. Some political parties such as the VVD and PvdA want more money to be invested in sports with the income resulting from the legalization of online gambling in the Netherlands. The sport is one of the areas that should benefit from online gambling in the Netherlands, just as the lotteries of the Postcode Lottery and the VriendenLoterij, for example, also donate money to charities.
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Resistance to lotteries
Of course, there are also counter-sounds from other angles. That’s how Novamedia makes itself heard. This organization behind several lotteries is afraid that allowing the online casino will be at the expense of the lotteries; the largest suppliers of charities. Lotteries are obliged to donate half of the proceeds to charities.
Online casinos pay a 30.1% gambling tax. Unlike lotteries, they have no obligation to pay 50% to charities. The answer that VVD and PvdA give to this is to let part of the burden fall on the sport. They also propose that the lotteries only have to pay 40% and a merger has already been made possible so that the lottery forms a stronger front to keep the competition under control. If the trend continues, online gambling will grow strongly in the coming years. This will only increase the social importance of the online gambling market.
Channeling online gambling for the benefit of society
No matter how divided political The Hague may be on this subject, ultimately the entry into force of the new gambling law as of 1 April 2021 and the opening of the online gambling market on 1 October 2021 is intended to lead people from illegal to legal casinos since there are hundreds of thousands of people who do so at unregulated casinos. Online games of chance were already available 24/7 with the rise of casinos on the internet, so in that respect, the new market situation does not change anything. What does change is that more advertisements are pointed out about the arrival of legal online games of chance in the Netherlands. On the one hand, this can act as an incentive to lead already existing gamblers to the legal offer, but on the other hand, it can also stimulate you to start gambling online. This again creates divisions about the social effect of online gambling. And that is exactly how society works: divided.
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