TOTO and Holland Casino must start airing fewer recruiting advertisements

The two state-owned Holland Casino and Dutch Lottery (including TOTO) must broadcast "more restrained and less advertising." A motion to this effect by the ChristenUnie and SP was unanimously adopted in the Lower House today.

On Wednesday, February 3, Pieter Grinwis (ChristenUnie, lead photo left) and Mahir Alkaya (SP, lead photo right) submitted a motion in the context of state participation. The two members of parliament asked the Minister to ensure that the state holdings Nederlandse Loterij and Holland Casino show more restraint and broadcast fewer promotional gambling advertisements.

On the day that it emerged that there were considerably fewer advertisements for gambling in January than the previous month, TOTO announced its new King TOTO in Dick Advocaat. The motion was adopted unanimously (can be seen here: -17:02).

It is up to the Minister to give substance to the motion. Both Holland Casino Online and the TOTO have television campaigns that focus on responsible gaming as opposed to the commendation of the product.

• For Holland Casino, these are the advertisements featuring Ellie Lust promoting "Live thrillingly, not recklessly," as opposed to the "now it gets exciting" advertisements.
• For TOTO, they are the ads with Nathan Rutjes anointed preaching, "Keep your calm, play deliberately," as opposed to the polarizing King TOTO ads with Wesley Sneijder and now Dick Advocaat.

The adopted motion does not name TOTO specifically but mentions the parent company Dutch Lottery. However, the motion focuses on high-risk games of chance and betting sites, such as https://cricket360.bet/. The other brands of the Dutch Lottery, the Staatsloterij, Lotto, EuroJackpot ("So much money man!"), Lucky Day, scratch cards, millionaire's game, do not fall under the risky games of chance.

The Chamber, having heard the debate, noting that the state-owned Dutch Lottery and Holland Casino are committed to an advertising code drawn up by the gambling sector itself;

whereas the Consumers' Association claims that this advertising code does not sufficiently protect young people and other vulnerable consumers whereas frequent gambling causes financial problems and a negative spiral of increasingly unhealthy living;

calls on the government, in its role as shareholder, in the run-up to the ban on unfocused advertising for high-risk games of chance, in accordance with the adopted Van Nispen motion (24 557, no. 186), to make a case for more restrained and less advertising-minded use of gambling advertisements by the state-owned companies Nederlandse Loterij and Holland Casino, so that young people and other consumers are better protected against the dangers of gambling and gambling addiction, and proceeds to the order of the day.