With the issued Gamin Intelligence story recently, it looks like Holland will be the latest European country to include online poker in its online gaming options.
According to the statement of the Gaming intelligence, the Ministry of Justice of Holland had created the Online Gaming Advisory Committee, a group of individuals responsible in reviewing the potentials of expanding their current online gaming laws to include online poker. It has been known that the said country is currently having a state-run monopoly on online gaming that offers sports betting and national lottery using the country’s state-authorized sites. The committee’s findings will definitely affect the laws because they written and enforced in the country currently.
The Online Gaming Advisory Committee was formed last September, its six members had investigated the country’s current market conditions, and its application of laws towards online gaming and according to the group, their recommendations to support legalization of online poker in Holland is closely similar to France when the country opened up its online gaming market. According to the group’s report, the suggested changes are twofold wherein the first one is when Holland provide license to sports betting and national lottery and found no problem at all under the current national laws. The second one was when the committee found out the existence of various illegal online gaming including online poker and has not been inhibited by the current legal system. The only way that they ever think of to prevent access to the online sites is to have different Internet Service Providers or ISPs throughout the country in order to block the sites.
It has been known that earlier this year, France had overhauled its monopoly on gaming that was run by the state for three years already and created the ARJEL, the country’s online gaming regulatory authority that handles the dispersal of online license for sports betting, horse racing and online poker. In June, the group handled the licensing of online gaming sites like PokerStars, PartyPoker, Everest Poker, and bwin to name a few.