International

Since the new online gambling market opened in October last year, gambling advertisements have been flooding the TV, radio and Internet. Not only people who have gambled before, but also people who have never gambled before are tempted to gamble. Apart from the fact that these gambling adverts are very irritating and misleading, it is certainly not the intention that more people start gambling. In today’s special debate (a so-called interpellation debate), SP Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen will call the Minister for Legal Protection to account. Van Nispen will ask the Minister why he refuses to implement a previously adopted SP parliamentary motion to prohibit targeted gambling advertisements. 'This is an insult to the House, which is why I want to have this special debate today with the Minister and will demand that he carries out this motion.'

In December last year, the Dutch Lower House adopted an SP proposal to put an immediate stop to unfocused advertisements for high-risk games of chance. In simple terms: stop those irritating gambling adverts on TV and radio with immediate effect. A majority of the House of Representatives agreed, but in January the Minister for Legal Protection announced that he would first investigate whether a ban was really necessary. 'The Minister indicated that he would not carry out the motion. Every day that we wait longer to ban these advertisements, new gamblers will start and run the risk of becoming addicted. This is what we must prevent at all costs.'

In the debate, the SP will again summon the Minister for Legal Protection to put an end to the multitude of gambling advertisements as soon as possible. Not only because the House of Representatives has already said it wants to ban the advertisements, but also to prevent further personal and social misery.

This article is a translation of an article on www.sp.nl