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New figures released by the Netherlands’ Central Bureau of Statistics, a governmental institution, has provided its latest outlook on the country’s gambling market.

Revealing an outlook on the market during the 2015-2018 period, permitting land-based gaming opportunities with plans currently in place to craft its online market, CBS has heaped on overall growth as well as an employment pick-up.

For the full year of 2018 revenue within the country amounted to €2.05bn (£1.84bn), showing consistent growth over the four year period from 2015’s €1.8bn (£1.65bn).

With revenue across the market on the up, consumption among Dutch consumers is also on the rise, with a 12 per cent increase over the four year period seeing a total figured wagered of approximately $2.5bn.

As a result, CBS has also details a hike in tax generated due to increased uptake and revenue, with its contributions for 2018 finishing at €529m (£475m), representing a 12.5 per cent boost from the previous year’s €470m (£422m)

With the gambling industry growing nine per cent during the four year period, a quicker rate than the 7.7 per cent of the Netherlands economy, jobs prospects are also shown to be on the rise.

At the end of 2017, the most recent figures for job representation available, 8,300 people were employed, up from 7,900 the previous year, and the highest figure for nine years when employment figures within the sector was at 8,900. 

In spite this, CBS also pointed out that illegal gambling continued to be an issue, stating: “According to the most recent figures from 2015, illegal gambling involved a game revenue of €170m, 9 per cent of the total game revenue from lotteries and games of chance. In that year, illegal gambling provided an added value of €151m. The legal branch is approximately seven times as large. Examples of illegal games of chance are casino games on the internet, live poker and sports betting via the internet.”

Earlier this year gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit, revealed that the Dutch senate has passed the Remote Gambling Act, for which it has set an initial target of the act coming into effect on Wednesday July 1, 2020, with permit applications able to be processed from that date, and the market for online games of chance then able to be officially open from Friday January 1, 2021.

At its last count the authority revealed that it has received 183 notifications from interested parties who are considering submitting an application for offering online gambling.