Michel Groothuizen named new chairman of Dutch gambling regulator

The Dutch Government has appointed Michel Groothuizen as the next chairman of gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA).

Groothuizen will take over as chair of the KSA on 1 July, succeeding René Jansen who announced last October that he would be stepping down.

Groothuizen has served as a member of the main board of the Custodial Institutions Agency (Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen) as deputy director general for more than four years.

Prior to that, he served as general director of the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, and policy director in the administrative department of the Ministry of Justice and Security.

During this time, he was responsible for the establishment of the Netherlands gambling regulator in 2012.

“Old love never dies,” said Groothuizen. “From 2007 onwards, as policy director, I was responsible, among other things, for the gambling dossier. One of my tasks was to establish the Gaming Authority. We succeeded in 2012. We had already been working on new legislation for a few years to manage online gambling offerings. It took almost 10 years before the law that was supposed to regulate this actually came into effect. I was long gone by then.

“But I think it is a wonderful challenge at this time to ensure safe gambling in a socially responsible manner and to combat negative consequences, such as gambling addiction.”

Ric de Rooij, deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Justice and Security, commented: “With Michel, the KSA will have a new manager with very broad administrative experience and knowledge of the subject in question.

“This is also necessary because developments surrounding gambling do not stand still and will continue to require attention. I look forward to working with Michel.”