International

A majority in the Lower House adopted the SP motion to ban gambling advertisements. SP MP Michiel van Nispen is delighted: ‘This is very good news. It is getting out of hand. Those advertisements have been everywhere since the market opened. And this is not something innocent. Persuading large groups of people to gamble online can lead to social misery. Therefore, we really need to stop these irritating and misleading advertisements. I am glad that the Lower House has forced the Minister to do so’. 

The proposal is to ban untargeted advertising of high-risk games of chance. Lotteries, which mostly contribute to charity and sports, are not included. It must also remain possible to make it clear to people looking for a specific game of chance which providers are licensed and which are not. The motion covers all advertisements for games of chance, i.e. on radio, TV and the Internet. Van Nispen: ‘That may be going pretty far, but it is necessary. We do not want so much advertising for online gambling, which is a really risky business causing a lot of problems. The market has no morals, so we have to put a strong check on the market’