Dutch gambling minister steps down, with regulation in flux

Media reports coming from the Netherlands suggest that Legal Protections Secretary Teun Struycken has tabled his resignation. Struycken’s resignation is the latest in a list of top cabinet officials stepping down to protest a political veto on sanctions against Israel.

Dutch politics were already in shambles after the fall of the four-party coalition government earlier this year, with a caretaker government holding the front until the next elections in October.

With many questions already looming over the gambling sector in the Netherlands, the latest development will definitely cast an even bigger shadow of uncertainty.

As a Legal Protections Secretary, Struycken was responsible for the oversight of gambling in the Netherlands, and was in the process of implementing a series of regulatory reforms designed to strengthen the licensed market against offshore operators and reduce problem gambling rates.