Michel Groothuizen has called on state secretary Claudia van Bruggen to use the summer recess to draft a simple change that would automatically place everyone listed in the Central Curatorship and Administration Register, or CCBR, into Cruks for as long as they remain under protection or guardianship. He also wants the minimum registration period in Cruks extended.
According to the reporting, the request comes against the backdrop of a parliamentary gambling debate that was pushed back until after the recess. CasinoNieuws.nl said Van Bruggen had already announced intended changes to the Cruks exclusion register, including lifting the minimum period from six months to 12 months, and Groothuizen said he supported that move but believed it should go further.
Groothuizen argued that people under bewind or curatele already form a financially vulnerable group and that automatic inclusion in Cruks would be a good step to protect them. He wrote that linking the CCBR directly and integrally to Cruks would offer “optimal protection to an extremely vulnerable group.”
He said there was also practical demand for the change from people working with those under protection. In his words, administrators and guardians had recently shown a need for it.
The KSA chairman said similar links between protection registers and self-exclusion already exist in Belgium and Germany. He framed gambling as a particularly risky product, saying it can cause major financial, social and health problems not only for gamblers themselves but also for the people around them.
Next.io reported that he made the case in broader terms too, saying people under court-appointed financial administration or legal curatorship are already recognised as needing extra legal or financial protection, but that those safeguards do not automatically extend to gambling. He said automatic inclusion in Cruks would better protect some of the Netherlands’ most vulnerable consumers from gambling-related harm.
Groothuizen also urged caution in how new consumer protections are designed. He said they must not push players away from the regulated market and into illegal alternatives, adding that the challenge is to protect vulnerable people while keeping the legal market attractive enough to retain channelisation.
Cruks itself is a register of players who have set up a gambling stop. The registration document says a gambling stop can be created when gambling is no longer under control, lasts at least six months, cannot be changed during that period, and starts within a few days of receipt.
The same document says gambling stops apply to gambling websites, entertainment arcades and casinos that hold a Dutch licence. If no period is chosen, the stop lasts two years, and once it ends Cruks automatically deletes the person’s data.
Groothuizen said around 25,000 people are receiving administrative support from the CCBR and roughly the same number are registered for curatorship. Next.io separately said he described about 250,000 people under protective orders and another 25,000 under guardianship.
