Dutch land casinos recorded losses last year

The state-owned Holland Casino group, which comprises 14 land casinos throughout the Netherlands, suffered further declines in 2013, generating total losses of Euro 22.3 million, reports the publication Dutch NL News.

After years of debate and false starts, the Dutch government is moving toward regulated online gambling and licensing, hopefully by early 2015 (see previous reports).

The Dutch NL News report notes that the loss was mainly due to one-off costs of Euro 28.5 million, including almost Euro18 million for ongoing reorganisation initiatives.

The casino group also lost Euro 10.6 million on investments made in an effort to protect the enterprise from interest rate increases which did not materialise.

Turnover fell from Euro 400 million to Euro 373 million due to the poor economic climate, low consumer confidence and the growth of illegal gambling via the internet, the company claimed.

Unhappy members of staff staged a strike this week to protest at the direction the company was taking, and demand a better pay deal. The company retrenched a number of employees earlier this year .

Holland Casino is on the government’s privatisation list.