The consumer protections watchdog for the Netherlands has reportedly slated the new set of advertising rules for the nation’s just-premiered online gaming sector by describing the regulations as ‘no good.’

According to a Thursday report from the online news domain at DutchNews.nl, the Consumentenbond organization publicized its condemnation at the same time as walking out of discussions it had been holding with local gambling operators and the small country’s Advertising Code Committee. The source detailed that the non-profit regulator had hoped its exit would prevent what it considers to be a flawed set of guidelines from being enacted ahead of this morning’s launch of the Netherlands’ newly-deregulated iGaming market.

Consensus collapse:

Sandra Molenaar serves as Director for the Consumentenbond and she reportedly claimed that the talks had been arranged so that her enterprise could agree concrete guidelines surrounding the tone of any future iGaming advertisements as well as to the maximum number that may be shown over the course of any one day. However, she purportedly claimed that operators had been unable to consent to a final set of standards to protect those who may be at risk of developing an addition to gambling.

Molenaar reportedly declared…

“An advertising code needs to contain conditions that are more stringent than laws but what has been proposed so far by the gambling sector is offering less protection and not more. That’s no good.”

Specific specimens:

The Consumentenbond had hoped that all parties would have agreed to a maximum daily limit of three television advertisements and the scrapping of a ‘double your money’ loophole for amounts of up to €250 ($290). The watchdog was moreover purportedly arguing against a provision that allows such spots, which may only be shown after nine o’clock in the evening, to be viewed by audiences featuring children and adolescents so long as they are fronted by a recognized celebrity.

Opening group:

The newly-deregulated iGaming market of the Netherlands went live early this morning after the Kansspelautoriteit gaming regulator granted licenses to ten operators including NSUS Malta Limited, LiveScore Malta Limited and Tombola International Malta. This inaugural club reportedly furthermore includes a pair of state-owned entities in land-based casino operator Holland Casino NV and lottery predominant Nederlandse Loterij as well as local sportsbetting firms FPO Netherlands BV and Bingoal Netherlands BV.

The Consumentenbond reportedly disclosed that this group, which contains six non-Dutch operators, are now live in the Netherlands without an effective advertising code despite being permitted to offer adult domestic punters sportsbetting in addition to a range of online casino games such as roulette and poker.