Reports
NETHERLANDS
company based in the south east of the country in Kerkrade. It was founded back in 1959 and operates 45 Fair Play Center branded arcades and Fair Play Casinos in both the Netherlands and Spain.
Meanwhile there are currently around 9,000 amusement machines now in the Netherlands. This has dropped from 12,800 back in 2003 and is divided between 8,200 in single sites and just over 1,000 in arcades.
Average turnover per gaming machine is around €5,000 for AWPs in single sites and €16,000 for those in arcades.
HOLLANDCASINO Although the idea of legalising casino gaming was discussed before the Second World War, it was not actually realised until 1974 when the country’s Betting and Gaming Act was revised.
On December 17 1975 the Dutch government issued the first and of course only, casino licence to the De Nationale Stichting tot Exploitatie van Casinospelen in Nederland (National Foundation for the Operation of Casino Games in the
Netherlands) or less formally known today as Holland Casino.
It was decided that only one licence should be issued in order to ensure that gaming would remain reliable, honest and well-controlled.
So in March 1976 the company opened its head office at Schiphol airport and in October of the same year opened its first casino in Zandvoort. This was followed by two casinos in the popular tourist resorts of Valkenburg (1977) and Scheveningen (1979) which was then followed by a major expansion between 1985-1989 with five city centre casinos opening in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Breda, Groningen and Nijmegen.
In 1984 the company relocated its office to Hoofddorp and in 1986 came the introduction of slots in casinos.
Later casinos in Eindhoven (1993), Schiphol (1995), Utrecht (2000) and Enschede (2002) would join the list and the company had reached the target level stated in the government’s policy document of 1995.
In the year 2000 a
reportwas published which proposed a revision of the government’s
gaming policy and recommended that
the embargo on new casinos should be
lifted and that the market should be open to any private
operatorwho could meet the licensing requirements.
In the year 2000 a report was published which proposed a revision of the government’s gaming policy and recommended that the embargo on new casinos should be lifted and that the market should be open to any private operator who could meet the licensing requirements.
However the government did not agree to the proposals and in 2004 reaffirmed its monopoly status by stating that Holland Casino would remain the only legal licensed casino operator in Holland.
The government did however suggest that 12 casinos were not enough and in 2005 Holland Casino was granted permission to open a further two locations in Venlo which opened in 2006 and Leeuwarden which opened in 2007. A further five applications have now been submitted in order to provide full nationwide coverage.
This monopoly situation today remains a sore point and is still criticised. Those against the monopoly argue that all the revenues (taxes and profits) simply go directly to government coffers. The government meanwhile argues that the
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