The history of Holland Casino

Casinos in Europe

There have been casinos in Europe for over two hundred years. The first were found in the expensive French resorts and German spas, their clientele being drawn from ‘high society’. With the introduction of roulette in the late eighteenth century, the casinos began to draw a much wider public. When several European countries legalized table gaming around 1930, many new casinos opened their doors. However, the social and legal status of casinos varied from country to country, as illustrated by the gaming laws (and tax regulations) of the day. Some countries opted for a system of nationalized casinos, while others created a more open and competitive gaming market by licensing private operators. In addition to the smaller casinos which mostly catered to the local market, there gradually emerged larger premises with a particular allure for tourists.

In the Netherlands too, the idea of legalizing casino gaming was raised prior to the Second World War. However, it was not until 1974 that the country’s Betting and Gaming Act was revised to allow the establishment of legal casinos.

Holland Casino

On 17 December 1975, the Dutch government issued the first – and only – casino licence to De Nationale Stichting tot Exploitatie van Casinospelen in Nederland (National Foundation for the Operation of Casino Games in the Netherlands), the formal name of Holland Casino. The government decided to issue only one licence in order to ensure that gaming would remain honest, reliable and well controlled.

Between 1976 and 1979, Holland Casinos opened in the popular tourist resorts of Zandvoort, Valkenburg and Scheveningen. The first major expansion followed during the period 1985-1989, with five new city-centre casinos opening in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Breda, Groningen and Nijmegen. Later, Eindhoven, Utrecht and Enschede would join the list, further to the government’s policy of ‘distributed access’. The number of locations had then reached the target level stated in the government’s policy document of 1995.

A report published in 2000 (‘New round, new chances’) proposed a revision of the government’s gaming policy. It recommended that the embargo on new casinos should be lifted, with a phased introduction of a totally free market which would be open to any commercial operator able to meet the licensing requirements.
 
These recommendations were not taken up because the government felt that the consequences were too unpredictable. Rather, in 2004 the government reaffirmed its restrictive gaming policy, stating that Holland Casino would remain the only legal, licensed casino operator in the Netherlands. However, it conceded that twelve casinos were not enough to provide readily accessible, legal gaming opportunities to everyone who might wish to take advantage of them. In 2005, Holland Casino was therefore granted permission to open two new locations, in Leeuwarden and Venlo. A further five applications have now been submitted in order to provide full nationwide coverage.

Historical facts

Chronology of Holland Casino