Dutch casino monopoly in online casino deal with Playtech

The general casino news this week contains news that the Dutch casino operator Holland Casino which has been very successful in keeping a monopoly in the country and regulating against online casinos has now tied up an agreement with online casino software provider Playtech. Regulation of the Dutch online casino market is due in 2015 which may or not be in response to several cases against the monopoly by EU complainants but the timing of the announcement suggests that Holland Casino would also like to gain a near monopoly for online casinos in the country. It is well known that Dutch online casino players have been active at online casinos whether it is legal or not and of course it is very difficult to stop individuals from playing at foreign operate online casino sites. Holland Casino is reported in the general casino news as wishing to provide a complete range of online casino, poker and and bingo areas on the site which clearly Playtech can supply. In a strange report in the casino news it states that “Playtech will ensure Holland Casino meets all the new regulatory requirements to be set out by the Netherlands legal authorities to provide its customers with an appealing localised product experience.” It seems unlikely that they will not meet the regulations given that it is a state monopoly that will almost certainly wither write the regulations or at least have a major influence on them. What will be interesting is what methods are attempted to exclude others from the Dutch market and at the casino news section of casinos.ie we shall keeping an eye open. In other casino news it has been reported that two Polish people have been convicted of blackmailing an online casino by threatening a cyber attack to bring the site down unless paid which proves again that online businesses including online casinos can be very vulnerable.