The bill that would have seen State owned monopoly Holland Casino open an online casino on a trial basis has been canceled after the upper house of the Dutch Parliament defeated the bill.

According to the Dutch Senate's website, the bill to open the a test online casino at HollandCasino.com was defeated by a vote of 35 to 37 on Tuesday after the lower house approved the bill in 2006. The verdict suggested that Dutch legislators are now taking a more cautious approach possibly due to earlier scrutiny by the European Commission.

The European Commission issued Greece and The Netherlands with final warnings in February. The warning was their last the next step will be court action over restrictions in their gambling markets in a push by European Union to boost competition.

PartyGaming and other online giants would have suffered if the plans for the online casino has been approved as Dutch gamblers would have been able to play legally on the new site as opposed to going to other gaming sites outside of Holland.


















- 2008-04-05