Even before the arrival of the Covid-19 virus, people all over the world have been flocking to the internet for more and more of their retail and service needs; clothes, groceries, sundries, movies, records, and books. But perhaps more than anything else, online gaming is rising to the fore of the internet culture, and that’s a trend going on for a long time.
Now the craze has hit the Netherlands.
And it’s no surprise.
The global online gambling market, which includes bingo, betting, bingo, casino games like poker and slots, is projected by experts to grow almost nine percent over the next five years. Online betting is considered the fastest-growing tech market, incorporating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other cutting-edge technologies while serving a worldwide market worth over $46B (US) in 2019 alone, according to Statistica.com.
Then there’s the virus: The dreaded novel COVID-19 virus has driven gamblers out of casinos and kept them away. Even now, in May of 2020, the famed casinos of Las Vegas and other major gambling capitals are only beginning to open up. Casino gambling is expected to be changed forever, and its new face is online gaming.
The industry received another recent boon in 2018 when sports betting was finally legalized by the Supreme Court of the United States. It only spurred the industry’s incredible growth spurt, which brings us to the Dutch.
In 1999, the Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) finally began accepting and processing registrations for an online gaming license. Dozens of applicants swarmed the authority, and now, almost a year later, Dutch online gaming is set to begin thriving.
The law is expected to become a reality this summer, on July 1, 2020, which would open the Dutch online gambling market on January 1, 2021. When that happens, online gambling in the Netherlands is set to explode, www.voordeelcasino.com is a good example.
Gambling is a treasured tradition and pastime in the Netherlands, long considered to be Europe’s Las Vegas. The first Dutch application to issue a gambling license dates back to the Fourteenth century! The country’s first casino, Holland Casino Zandvoort, was opened in the 1970s by Holland Casino, which runs the government’s casinos, to great success. Much of that revenue went straight into the government’s coffers, so the competition was widely restricted for decades. Before the second decade of the 2000s, only fourteen casinos serviced all of the Netherlands; all of them were owned and operated by, you guessed it, Holland Casino.
But things have changed. Competitors abound, gambling spreads across the Netherlands like wildfire. The over two-hundred casinos and gambling outlets spread across the Netherlands include bingo halls, gaming arcades, lottery outlets, poker clubs, racetracks, and sportsbooks. Lottery outlets, sportsbooks, and racetracks. Casinos in the Netherlands offer posh restaurants and attractions, but not the deluxe hotels for which Las Vegas and other gambling hubs are well-known. Without those attractions, playing from home becomes even more attractive to the average gambler, who also may not have as much vacation income as they might have had last year at the same time, or even last month!
But the passion for gaming survives, and the internet and online gambling have only stoked those flames. Now more than ever, the internet will lead the way in gambling. Health concerns are only a part of that transition. Secure online banking, changes in personal habits, matters of convenience, have all taken gambling out of the casinos, and put it on the laptop, the PC, even the smartphone. It was inevitable, and it is a reason to celebrate.
The present and the future are about to collide in the Netherlands as they have everywhere else in the world, and the results promise to be explosive.
Typical of its conscientious governance, and in keeping with other European trends, the country is keeping a tight grip on the practice as it spreads across the internet and the Dutch population. The government has programs to combat gambling addictions and other charitable recipients of the gaming industry.
Another vital sign of the future of online gambling in the Netherlands in the recent past. Though online gambling is now being legalized and regulated, illegal sites have been common in the country for years. Dutch people spent about €800 million on illegal online gambling per the past decade’s average year. Now, with the Netherlands embracing online gambling, everything is sure to change, and drastically.
Leaders in online gaming, like voordeelcasino.com, are poised to take gambling and gamblers of the Netherlands into a new and exciting direction. Online gambling in the Netherlands is now that rarest of things – a sure bet.
