Illegal internet gambling hits €450m
The Dutch are spending €450m a year on illegal internet gambling sites, according to a new survey by research agency Motivaction, quoted in the Telegraaf. This represents a doubling of the annual spend since 2005.
Motivaction says Dutch gamblers, most of them young people, spend an average of €82 a month on the internet and that there are 485,000 regular players.
Addiction clinic Jellinek is calling on the government to introduce regulated internet sites as soon as possible. ‘The current ban for players and sites does not work’, a Jellinek spokesman told the paper.
On Wednesday justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin said internet gambling sites which target Dutch consumers now face legal action.
The Netherlands has not yet licensed any online gambling sites. Efforts to give a licence to the state gambling monopoly Holland Casino last year were thwarted in parliament.
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