Helma Lodders Joins BBB as a Symbolic Candidate After Leaving VVD
A few months after her departure from the VNLOK industry association, Helma Lodders has announced that she will be a symbolic candidate for the BBB (BoerBurgerBeweging – Farmer-Citizen Movement). Lodders resigned her membership from the VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) due to dissatisfaction with the party’s direction. Should Lodders be elected with preferential votes, she will respect this decision and take her seat in the House of Representatives.
In April, the Licensed Dutch Online Gambling Providers (VNLOK) announced that its chairwoman, Helma Lodders, would be leaving the industry association. Lodders’ term as chairwoman of the association expired on May 1st, and the former Member of Parliament decided not to extend it.
Now, almost three months after her departure, the former chairwoman of the industry association announces that she has returned to politics. Helma Lodders has resigned her membership from the VVD and is joining the BoerBurgerBeweging, as she explains in an interview with the Algemeen Dagblad.
Dissatisfaction
Lodders is making the switch out of dissatisfaction with the new course of the VVD, she explains. In particular, the former chairwoman of VNLOK is not satisfied with the VVD’s positions in the areas of agriculture and climate.
These very topics were part of Lodders’ portfolio when she was still active as a Member of Parliament for the VVD. In addition to her work at VNLOK, Lodders also became chairwoman of the industry organization Vee & Logistiek when she left the House of Representatives.
Despite making the switch to the BBB, Lodders makes it clear that a return to the House of Representatives is not her plan. Lodders is purely on the BBB’s list as a symbolic candidate for the elections on October 29th. Should she be elected with preferential votes, she says she will ‘respect that decision’ and take her seat in the House of Representatives.
BBB’s Vision on Gambling
Prior to the previous elections, Lodders’ new party paid attention to gambling in their election program. In 2023, the BBB took a striking position: the BoerBurgerBeweging wanted to get rid of lotteries such as the Nationale Postcode Loterij and the Vriendenloterij. Instead, the Dutch Lottery should receive a monopoly license for a large national lottery, the BBB proposed.
Online gambling was not discussed in the election program, but the party did vote for several motions on online gambling. For example, it recently voted for motions to reverse the planned age increase for high-risk games of chance. According to the BBB, this measure should first be properly investigated, as evidenced by a vote for another motion on this subject.
The party was also in favor of setting up a task force, tightening the duty of care, and making it easier for the Gaming Authority to take illegal gambling sites offline.
Online Advertising Ban
The BoerBurgerBeweging played an important role a year ago regarding the motions on expanding the advertising ban for online gambling. The party previously voted against Derk Boswijk’s rejected motion proposing a total ban on gambling advertisements. A few weeks later, the BBB did vote for Michiel van Nispen’s motion to ban online advertising for online games of chance, a motion that thus received enough votes.
In that same round of voting, the party voted against another motion by Van Nispen proposing to ban ‘online games of chance with a demonstrably very high risk’. Despite the BBB’s vote against, that motion was also adopted. Outgoing State Secretary Struycken, however, quickly indicated that he did not favor such a ban. He preferred to ban the addictive elements from such games of chance.
The BBB has not yet published its election program for the upcoming elections.
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