THE HAGUE–The Dutch Government wants to prevent an expansion of the offering of illegal offshore gambling services from Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten in the Netherlands.
Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops, also on behalf of Minister of Legal Protection Sander Dekker, stated this in a reply to a series of written questions that Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) submitted late January this year.
Van Raak sought clarity on the responsibility of the Netherlands for the offshore hazard games and gambling industry in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten. Van Raak asked detailed questions about the policies that were in place, the system of issuing permits, supervision and legislation that were in place where it regards offshore gambling.
Knops explained in his answers that the countries Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten had their own gambling legislation and regulations. “Because it does not concern a Kingdom affair, the Kingdom has no authority where it comes to the issuing and extension of permits for offshore hazard games, the supervision thereof and the enforcement of the National Ordinance on Offshore Hazard Games of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten,” he stated.
He said he and Dekker took the concerns about the offshore and the gambling industry in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten seriously, even though the issuing of permits, supervision and enforcement of the law regulating providing offshore hazard games fell under the jurisdiction of the Dutch Caribbean countries. “We are seeking to prevent the expansion of illegal gaming from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom in the Netherlands,” Knops said.
He noted that there was a role for the Prosecutor’s Offices of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten in case of criminal activities. The Netherlands supports the countries in combating crime by supplying and financing capacity for the Kingdom Detective Cooperation Team RST and the TBO team that fights subversive crime, which have local investigative competence in the areas of border-transgressing crime, fraud, money-laundering and subversion.
“These entities are authorised and equipped to take action when there is an overlap between gaming licence holders regarding gambling and criminal activities. The arrest and extradition of the gambling boss Francesco Corallo on the request of Italian authorities late 2016 is an example of this,” Knops said.
In addition, the Dutch Gaming Commission has been working on improving cooperation with the Dutch Caribbean countries to prevent the offering of illegal hazard games from these countries on the Dutch market.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/74848-dutch-want-to-tackle-illegal-gaming-services-of-islands
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