Dutch State must privatize Holland Casino

Holland Casino, which is fully owned by the Dutch state, is currently in dire straits. The gambling company suffered a loss of no less than 3.5 million euros in the first six months of this year. Time to divest the company and launch it on the private market. This is what the Reformatorisch Dagblad states in an opinion piece

The loss has led to a crisis situation within the company. Director Petra de Ruiter states that there are only three drastic measures left to get the company back on track.

Three possible measures to save Holland Casino

De Ruiter stated in an interview with the Volkskrant that the options to save the company are limited. One of the possibilities is to let customers lose more quickly. Which would increase income. Another option is to reduce the prize money. Which would limit expenditure. The last and perhaps most controversial option is to launch an aggressive advertising strategy to attract more customers.

Political concerns about Holland Casino’s advertising strategy

However, this last option has caused great concern among political parties such as the Christian Union and the SGP. Both parties have expressed their concerns to the cabinet in recent days. And emphasized that the government must immediately block De Ruiter’s plans.

They see the proposal as a form of blackmail. The threat of an aggressive advertising campaign to force support from the state. If the government were to agree to this approach, they believe it would lead to a serious credibility problem. This is given the existing legislation that is precisely aimed at limiting gambling advertisements.

Privatization debate around Holland Casino flares up again

The current situation reopens the debate about why Holland Casino is still a state-owned company. When the organization was founded in 1976, it was given the task of offering gambling in a legally responsible and reliable manner.

This became the reason for state ownership. In the nineties, during the wave of privatization, many state-owned companies were sold. But Holland Casino escaped privatization at the time.

Financial performance and social responsibility under scrutiny

Despite not being privatised, Holland Casino’s performance has been below par for years. In 2021, the company was placed in the ‘laggard’ category by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on the transparency benchmark, which assesses the social responsibility of state-owned companies.

The company’s financial performance has also been disappointing; the government has not received any dividends since 2018 due to various setbacks.

Time to privatize Holland Casino

The combination of the poor performance and De Ruiter’s recent blackmail action raises the question of why the government is still holding on to this state-owned company. With the recent amendment to the law that legalises online gambling, Holland Casino operates on an open market.

A report commissioned by the Senate last year rightly concluded that continuing state shareholding is no longer necessary to safeguard public interests. Supervising the gambling market is a government task, but supporting a struggling company with all its addiction risks is certainly not. It is therefore time to quickly get rid of Holland Casino.