Everyone should know for themselves how much money they are putting on the line online? Or should we protect people much more against the enormous temptations to gamble? In six months, almost half a billion euros has been gambled online. That is more than was expected before the opening of the market – exactly 1 year ago. Young adults in particular are active on the gambling sites and that is precisely the group that we wanted to protect beforehand.
‘In the long run, gamblers always lose’
“People who have been in recovery for a little longer still have the irritation (about the commercials), but I don’t immediately see that they relapse,” says Smit. He states that gambling addiction is the only addiction where you ‘could’ win money. “Only in the long run, gamblers always lose.” He believes that the gambling advertisements stimulate the urge to gamble.
Smit mentions that a certain percentage of people become addicted to online gambling. “Because not everyone who gambles becomes addicted. But if you give it more publicity, you reach a larger target group and more people start playing. The number of gambling addictions will increase over the years. And then you are filling the well when the calf drowned is.”