“In the online space much has changed. Online gambling has been officially legal since 2021. At the same time lottery games are still
restricted to the state licensed monopoly operators while the land-based market is still operated by monopolies with the exception of slot machines in arcades. In 2021 the country’s highest
administrative court backed up the lottery model in issuing a single lotto licence to Dutch lottery
operator Lotto BV which has the sole right to offer draw games and ruled that the single-permit system for
organising lotteries is justified.”
The Netherlands
INSIGHT LOTTERIES AND MONOPOLIES
going to establish an advisory committee to investigate the best way for it to regulate online gaming in the context of EU law. Before then the government was strongly opposed to online gaming. Te government’s argument for the online gambling ban was that it would help curb gambling addiction in the nation. At the same time, the Dutch government was actively increasing spending on advertising state-run gambling. Tis was an increasingly hard stance to defend and the EU was instrumental in the shift in Dutch policy towards liberalising the market.
In the online space much has changed. Online gambling has been officially legal since 2021. At the same time lottery games are still restricted to the state licensed monopoly operators while the land-based market is still operated by monopolies with the exception of slot machines in arcades.
In 2021, the country’s highest administrative court backed up the lottery model in issuing a single lotto licence to Dutch lottery operator, Lotto BV, which has the sole right to offer draw games and ruled that the single-permit system for organising lotteries is justified.
TOTO is the country’s sports betting and football pool operator. It, along with a number of other entities, operates under the umbrella of the Nederlandse Loterij which also operates the state lottery, lotto and instants. TOTO’s somewhat old fashioned image is now being reversed via a slick advertising campaign featuring well known Dutch football players and rappers. State sports betting is expected to be the fastest growing vertical over the coming years.
operators took monopoly holders to the European courts of justice over online gambling laws. Denmark finally replaced its online gambling monopoly in 2012. Sweden opened up the market to foreign competitors in 2019. Hungary is currently looking at ways to open up the online market and put an end to the state monopoly over online gambling.
Now that most jurisdictions have put in place more liberal online gambling laws new lines are being drawn over the protection of other betting products such as sports
betting. As a result government held monopolies over gaming pose still pose a number of important questions. Why is it that many non traditional lottery products are being handed over to state lotteries? Are lotteries being given an unfair advantage in certain jurisdictions in Europe and is there any chance that the power of these monopolies will be challenged in the future?
THE NETHERLANDS
In September 2009, the Dutch government announced that it was
Meanwhile, Holland casinos still has the legal monopoly on casino gambling with profits going directly to the Dutch treasury. Te government began to look seriously at selling off 10 casinos in 2011 due to declining visitor numbers. In January 2015, draft legislation was put forward by the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice to modernise the casino sector and open up the market. However, these plans have been scrapped as it did not garner enough support from senators who argued that privatised casinos may encourage gambling and were
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P31
unhappy with the way privatisation plans were going. However the improved performance of the casinos leading up to the pandemic no doubt played a part in this decision as well.
SWEDEN
Svenska Spel was formed officially in 1997 after a merger between Tipstjanst and Penninglotteriet, which had existed since the 1930s as lottery companies. Te Lotteries Act of 1994 and Te Casinos Act in 1999 - ensured that all gambling remained under the control of the Swedish state and its agencies. Te Lotto was launched in 1980 and subsidiary Casino Cosmopol began
“Svenska Spel’s gaming business is divided into three separate business areas. The largest
revenue sector is Tur (number games and lotteries). Sports and Casino has a 25 per cent GGR share and includes both land- based and online sports games and casino games with main sports betting group Oddset (a
collective name for games such as Machen, Mixen, Challenge), and
football games via Stryktipset,
Europatipset, Maltipset and
Topptipset. Casino games such as online poker, online casino and bingo were launched in January 2019. “ Sweden
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