About this app
What is Second Thunder?
One of the operator’s most significant challenges is the increase in gambling tax enforced over recent years. Petra has been particularly vocal about this and the company’s profitability has taken a reasonable hit, since the first tax increase to 34.2% of GGR came into effect on 1 January 2025.
Holland Casino now pays 37.8% of GGR to the state, as per the additional increase in 2026, but with labour tax on top the business pays around 52% before they can look at their base running costs. It is not a small burden by any stretch of the imagination, so it is heartening to see the business doing well despite the tightening tax burden.
With such a significant rise in tax, you would forgive the company for cutting wherever possible, but Petra says they have made it work by maximising efficiency, restructuring, and maintaining their offering so the customer doesn’t notice that anything has changed.
What is Second Thunder?
Members pushed the government for further action to block illegal websites, in the same way it provides power to quickly address terrorist and child pornography sites.
Members advocated for stronger powers to be given to Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the regulator of gambling in the Netherlands, with tougher action taken against payment providers, social media sites and affiliates that facilitate illegal gambling.
Van Bruggen revealed the cabinet was in the process of developing legislation to introduce DNS blocking for illegal sites, with a consultation due for early 2027.
How to play Second Thunder
Below is the graph of 1-month rates from CNBC. They are about to cross the zero boundary.
When that happens, commodities prices are going to get completely unhinged. The cash on corporate balance sheets is going to start losing purchasing power very fast. And that will only encourage more dumping of it, and increase the positive feedback loop now already in place.
They can dump it for BTC, sure. But that’s not going to help at all. Why not? Because the value of BTC depends entirely on the U.S. dollar still being usable in a basic sense as a currency. If the dollar falls, so does BTC, because BTC is not fundamentally useful other than as a way of transferring dollars or other fiat currencies. If there is no value to transfer, there is no value to the transfer tool. Corporates are going to have to dump extra paper currency for gold, quickly, yesterday, or they are going to lose everything. Same for individuals. Time is almost out now, I’m sorry to say. Good luck out there, and if you want a guide during these crazy times of monetary chaos, follow me on SeekingAlpha, and sign up for a free trial at The End Game Investor.
