In terms of government regulating the online gambling industry, the country that receives the majority of the attention for this issue is the United States.  However, this week we have a different country that is in the limelight for this topic.

Earlier this month, the Justice Minister of Holland began an attempt to enact new regulations for the online gambling industry.  The regulations that the Justice Minister is trying to push forward are similar to the UIGEA (which is the notorious anti-online gambling legislation that was enacted by the United States), and would apply to all online gambling businesses that are not sanctioned by the state.

As you can imagine, this proposed legislation is receiving a lot of criticism and resistance.  One of the groups that is most actively campaigning against this legislation is the Dutch banking industry.  In the opinion of the Dutch banking industry (and the opinion of many other groups and individuals who are opposed to this legislation), they feel that these regulations are excessive and will not provide any value in the long run.

The reason that the Justice Minister (who is named Hirsch Ballin) is working so hard to enact this legislation is because he is part of a group who wants the government of Holland to be the only source of online gambling for every citizen of Holland.  While having the government offer online gambling to its citizens may seem strange to citizens of other countries, Holland already has a land based casino that is run by the state.  In fact, there was a point in time when government officials thought about giving this casino an exclusive license to also run Holland's online gambling, but this action never finished as a result of pressure from the same Dutch banking group.