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“You can go the combative route and ban something that’s federally regulated,” he said. “But what you’ll end up with is a bunch of customers in Texas just going offshore.”
The committee also heard from Brianne Doura-Schawohl, a nationally recognised problem gambling expert. One study cited by Doura-Schawohl found that 52% of Gen Z respondents include sports betting and prediction markets as part of their long-term financial plan.
She also criticised a Kalshi competitor for offering a function that allows minors over 17 to link an investment account with the ability to buy and sell event contracts. A former legislative director for the National Council on Problem Gambling, Doura-Schawohl described the opportunity as “very dangerous” for teenagers susceptible to harm.
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Among those pushing for the increased age limit were the SGP’s Diederik van Dijk and the CDA’s Tijs van den Brink.
Van Bruggen said the matter would be raised in subsequent progress reports.
Beyond raising the age limit to 21, Van Dijk called for a complete reversal of the Netherlands’ 2021 online gambling legalisation, which helped establish a reasonably mature legal gambling market for the sector, until tighter restrictions for players, and increased taxes, struck licensed operators in recent years.
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The group highlighted potential risks posed by Google’s organic search features beyond paid advertising, which include autocomplete and suggested queries.
Using data collected primarily through Chrome’s incognito mode to exclude personalised search histories, the KVA identified several autocomplete and pre-fill search queries that directly suggested illegal gambling platforms to users.
Examples included phrases like “online casino zonder Cruks” (online casino without CRUKS, the Dutch self-exclusion registry for problem gamblers) and “beste online casino buitenland” (best online casino abroad).
