The Netherlands has long been considered the Las Vegas of Europe, and for a good reason. The Netherlands has been offering casino gambling of various sorts for over five hundred years. Almost twenty million tourists visited the Netherlands in the typical year of the 2010s, and many of them flocked to the over two-hundred casinos spread out over the country.
And while the Netherlands’ casinos don’t typically feature the grand hotels which typify the Las Vegas attractions like Paris and The Venetian, there are other similarities which are hard to ignore. Casinos in the Netherlands, like Nitro Casino, are suffering from new social distancing restrictions. Most were shut down entirely for months, throwing their industries into havoc.
Not only are still people not allowed to go to many casinos, but there’s also a question about whether they will go once restrictions are lifted. Cards and chips and drinking glasses could transmit the virus, and everybody knows it; the dealers who will wear gloves and masks, the waitresses who will do the same, and the gamblers who may be likewise be forced to protect their mouths and hands.
Just imagine how much fun that’s going to be.
It’s also going to be unsanitary. No amount of care or protection will prevent infection. Some are bound to catch the virus, and that can be deadly. So in the Netherlands, as in Las Vegas and other places all over the world, casino gambling in on the wane while online gambling is on the rise.
It’s been possible to gamble online in the Netherlands for years, though it wasn’t strictly legal nor regulated. That meant the Dutch gamer wasn’t protected, and the Dutch government didn’t get paid. The practice of online gambling in the Netherlands would never become widespread until the government embraced it. It finally did in 1999 when the Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) began accepting and processing registrations for an online gaming license. With countless applicants and the law set to become a reality on July 1, 2020, Dutch online gambling is guaranteed to explode all over the internet and all over the Netherlands as of roughly January 1, 2021.
What does this mean for the average Dutch gambler? It changes everything. The internet has taken over everything in our modern life, including retail and real estate investing, business meetings, and media. With movie theaters and restaurants closed, bookstores are disappearing, restaurants closing by the score, and our culture is getting more private and secluded worldwide. The average Dutch gambler has had forgone that pleasure, and the prospect of returning to the old ways of doing things aren’t palatable.
The downsides of this transition are sad and clear. The many good people employed in the service industry have suffered, and their jobs may never come back. And for those who savor the glamor of the ambiance, the chance to get away from it all and live like James Bond for a few days, these things have become more difficult. Fewer people are working; they have less money for the kind of excursions that casino gambling makes so enticing.
But the upsides far exceed the down when it comes to online gambling, something Dutch gamers will discover. The first boon is obvious, and it hits people where they live; their wallet. For the average online gambler, there are no inflated costs, including overpriced cocktails, tipping both cocktail waiters and waitresses, dealers. There’s gas for the car, a babysitter perhaps, a fancy meal that’s likely to draw you to the casino’s restaurant.
But with the advent of online gambling in the Netherlands, gamblers can enjoy all the thrills of the top games, including poker, bingo, sports betting, roulette, all manner of gaming, from the comfort of their own home. The money saved can be put on the table, in the slots, to create all the more chances to win!
But the boon goes on. The safety and sanitation of online gambling make it the ideal way for so many people to while away the time they have to spend at home. And with the burgeoning number of reputable online gaming sites now regulated by the government, the boon is set to continue, taking online gambling in the Netherlands into the Twenty-first century.
Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!
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