It looks as if the Netherlands may be following the United States’ lead in the development of interest in banning online gambling. The Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands is pursuing its options in regards to establishing it’s own version of America’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA)- so similar in that they would also enforce such an act by prosecuting credit card companies and financial institutions for allowing transfers of funds to online casino sites.

Online gambling is currently illegal in the nation, but most people find their internet gambling fix simply by utilizing foreign sites. Holland’s state-owned Holland Casino reported that as many as 400,000 people continue to gamble online in this manner. The Ministry of Justice had its focus on as many as 30 foreign firms that have targeted the Holland pool of gamblers.

The proposals being put forth indicate that a record of forbidden websites is to be released this spring to financial institutions and credit card companies with a request for the processors of said businesses to block transactions to or from provided sites. The current laws are under scrutiny from the European Union as it looks into whether they’re a kind of protectionism. The new proposals to banks, however, have some wondering if it is all a ruse to reinforce the nation’s monopoly by eliminating competition from foreign sources.

Many of the related investigations stem from a letter from the European Union’s Internal Markets Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy. Said letter indicated that Holland’s government has been actively increasing funding on advertising state-run gambling, a breach of the European Union regulations. In response, Holland’s officials said that advertising expenses for the lottery had actually decreased, despite McCreevy’s claim that the number of advertisements for the Lotto had jumped up 42% from 2002 to 2004, according to the research bureau Nielsen Media.

McCreevy, an Irishman by nationality, continued to doubt evidence that the state monopoly has resulted in a decrease in gambling addiction and a minimizing of gambling related crime in general.