Holland Shocks Online Gambling Stance

There are certain things in the history of the world that are surprising, but in terms of the modern day-to-day operations of online gambling, there are few things that could be as surprising as what the small country of Holland has done in relation to online gambling.

If there was a single country that could be designated a safe haven in the developed world by people involved in online gambling it would be the country of Holland. It is a country that allows marijuana smoking and it is also a country that allows drug addicts to get clean needles at their pharmacies. However, this extremely liberal country apparently can do those things but draw the line when it comes to online gambling.

Exhibit A is the European Union, the supranational entity that controls most of the countries located on the European continent. The European Union has recently made a policy shift and in doing so has attempted to stamp out a lot of the online gambling that has been going on within its borders. There is rampant speculation regarding why the EU governing council would make such a blatantly unpopular move, but many believe that it has to do with influence from the United States.

Exhibit B is the country of Holland, whose legislators have decided to take the advice of the EU and interpret it in a way that has led to massive increases in the amount of taxation that online gambling operators will incur. Many taxes in Holland are designed so that the infrastructure in that particular part of the economy can be built up, but these taxes are designed to be nothing but punitive. Indeed, the Holland-based legislators appear to be interested in breaking up online gambling monopolies as quickly as possible and that indeed does appear to be what is fuelling these particular moves.

Exhibit C is the actions taken by those same legislators in Amsterdam against two specific online gambling operations that are located in Holland. Oranje Casino and Unibet are the names of the two companies and the legislators in Holland appear to be using every play available in the book to get these companies to leave. They have even gone so far as to borrow from the US playbook and severely punish payment processors in Holland that facilitate the operations of Oranje and Unibet.

All three of these exhibits show a shocking change of attitude on the part of the Dutch authorities. This normally friendly and laid-back country has now become one of the leading crusaders against online gambling. However, the ironic part of the whole thing is that the actions they have taken against offshore and online gambling have actually massively helped casinos that are land-based and located inside Holland. In other words, people have not stopped gambling, but have just shifted their focus elsewhere. This seems to indicate that the plan has backfired as neither Holland nor the European Union wanted that particular outcome to take place.