The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has delivered a sobering assessment of the Dutch regulated gambling landscape, revealing that the online market remains stagnant while channelisation rates decline and illegal operators gain ground. Speaking at an industry conference, Ella Seijsener, head of the KSA's Licences and Supervision Directorate, outlined both the challenges facing licensed operators and the regulator's expectations for improved player protection.
Market Performance Shows Concerning Trends
The most recent monitoring report from spring revealed that the online gambling market in the Netherlands is stagnating, remaining at the same level as six months earlier. The number of operators, their gross gambling revenue, the number of players and the channelisation rate are all roughly the same as six months earlier – a stark contrast to broader European performance.
According to commercial data provider H2 Gambling Capital, the licensed online gambling market in the EU grew by 11 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, highlighting how significantly the Dutch market is underperforming relative to regional peers.
Important
The Dutch licensed online gambling market is seriously lagging behind European growth trends, with stagnation occurring across all key metrics while neighboring markets achieve double-digit expansion.
The channelisation rate based on gross game result has decreased to 53%, indicating that illegal operators are capturing an increasing share of Dutch gambling activity. This decline represents a critical challenge for the regulated market's sustainability and effectiveness.
53%
Current Channelisation Rate
11%
EU Online Gambling Growth in 2025
Regulatory Restructuring and Comprehensive Approach
The KSA underwent significant organisational changes, restructuring its management layer and adopting a more comprehensive approach to supervision and enforcement. The authority established a new player protection department focusing on the deployment of the Addiction Prevention Fund (VPF) and consumer education about gambling risks.
“We went through a major change last year at the KSA. We restructured our management layer and are now working together much more comprehensively in the field of supervision and enforcement.”
— Ella Seijsener, Head of Licences and Supervision Directorate, KSA
The regulator's approach reflects the understanding articulated by former chairman René Jansen that the legal and illegal markets function as interconnected systems, requiring coordinated responses across multiple fronts.
KSA Organizational Changes
The restructuring included establishing a dedicated player protection department focused on Addiction Prevention Fund deployment and consumer education initiatives, representing the most significant internal changes in the authority's recent history.
Political Climate and Policy Challenges
The regulatory environment faces mounting political pressure, with proposed measures including total advertising bans and limits on the number of online providers. The KSA has previously warned against advertising restrictions that could push players to illegal operators and remains critical of the plan to limit the number of online providers.
A new impact assessment of the gambling tax will likely be published at the end of June, expected to demonstrate that tax increases failed to achieve intended goals. The assessment is anticipated to show reduced tax revenue due to a decreased tax base, directly impacting operator profitability.
“The political climate seems to have cooled for you as a result. The critical voices that had previously been heard from society and the media are now translating into tightened policies, whereby the previously seemingly unlimited growth of the market now seems to be stalling.”
— Ella Seijsener, Head of Licences and Supervision Directorate, KSA
Warning
The upcoming impact assessment in June is expected to reveal that gambling tax increases reduced overall revenue by shrinking the tax base, potentially influencing future policy decisions on operator taxation levels.
Illegal Market Expansion and Enforcement Challenges
The illegal gambling sector continues expanding while the regulated market stagnates. Operators like Skyhills maintain significant advertising presence on platforms including TikTok, while Meta faces criticism for hosting enormous volumes of advertisements from illegal parties.
Traditional enforcement through fines proves largely ineffective, as these penalties are almost impossible to collect and thus almost never paid. However, the KSA maintains comprehensive enforcement strategies against illegal operators while acknowledging the challenges in collecting penalties from unlicensed entities.
The authority has adopted a comprehensive infrastructure disruption strategy, collaborating with hosting providers, banks, payment service providers and marketing companies to undermine illegal operators' operational capabilities.
International Cooperation Intensifies
KSA board chairman Michel Groothuizen travelled to Dublin to engage with technology companies alongside fellow European regulators, seeking enhanced action against illegal gambling offerings. The discussions aimed to increase tech company responsibility for removing illegal content and advertising.
The conference of European regulators (GREF) continued these discussions, addressing multiple aspects of illegal online gambling market challenges. This coordinated approach strengthens regulatory capacity to combat cross-border illegal operations that individual authorities struggle to address independently.
Google's organic search results and Meta's advertising platforms remain key channels through which illegal offerings reach Dutch consumers, despite ongoing regulatory engagement with these technology platforms.
Operator Responsibilities and Duty of Care
The regulator emphasised operators' critical role in demonstrating that regulated markets provide superior consumer protection compared to illegal alternatives. The Consumers' Association launched a major claim in the context of duty of care regarding legal gambling supply, highlighting public concerns about licensed operator practices.
“If we as the KSA want to be able to continue to make the argument that people are better off in a regulated market than in a market with only illegal supply, we need to be able to show that.”
— Ella Seijsener, Head of Licences and Supervision Directorate, KSA
The number of people in treatment for gambling addiction continues to rise, partly reflecting the time lag between market opening and addiction manifestation. With the market open for five years, visible gambling problems are increasing as addiction patterns develop and individuals seek treatment.
Research indicates that people who gamble with illegal businesses often started doing so via legal businesses, highlighting the pathway from regulated to unregulated gambling. Studies show that young people aged 18 sign up directly to gambling sites very shortly after their birthday, despite advertising restrictions.
Addiction Treatment Timeline
Treatment numbers continue rising partly due to the natural time lag between market opening and addiction manifestation, with the five-year market history now revealing longer-term gambling problem patterns.
Advertising Standards and World Cup Preparations
The KSA has identified concerning advertising practices, particularly involving streamers filming themselves while gambling. The authority calls for operators to consider emerging promotional methods within existing regulatory frameworks rather than exploiting perceived loopholes.
“My appeal, therefore, is to act more in the spirit of the law.”
— Ella Seijsener, Head of Licences and Supervision Directorate, KSA
With the World Cup approaching, the KSA has issued letters outlining enforcement expectations, particularly regarding young adult protection. The tournament presents significant appeal to key demographic groups that regulators seek to protect through strict advertising rules.
The authority references Zembla viewers as a benchmark for public perception, suggesting that if average consumers cannot discern regulatory nuances in advertising practices, operators may be operating improperly regardless of technical compliance.
Enhanced Risk Assessment and Prevention
Operators must develop more sophisticated understanding of gambling addiction indicators and implement effective prevention policies. The KSA continues issuing warnings and fines for duty of care failures, particularly cases where young people lose significant amounts or engage in extended gambling sessions without intervention.
The regulator emphasises that addiction prevention requires proactive identification of risk factors and implementation of corresponding protective measures. Current monitoring systems appear inadequate given continued instances of harm among vulnerable populations.
Regulatory Expectations and Market Sustainability
The KSA's supervision approach aims to balance market workability with optimal player protection, though tensions exist between commercial interests and regulatory objectives. The authority's risk-driven, problem-solving supervision model targets areas where players face insufficient protection.
The most important part is that we are able to say without reservation that people are better off in that regulated market. That is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
The regulator acknowledges the challenge of defending regulated market benefits while enforcement actions continue against licensed operators for duty of care violations. This credibility gap undermines arguments for channelisation and regulated market preference.
Compliance Imperatives for Dutch Operators
The Dutch regulated gambling market faces a critical juncture where stagnation threatens the fundamental premise. of legal channel preference. While EU markets achieve robust growth, Netherlands operators confront declining channelisation rates, intensifying political pressure, and rising addiction treatment numbers that challenge regulatory defence of the licensed model.
The KSA's infrastructure disruption approach against illegal operators represents sophisticated enforcement evolution, yet success depends heavily on international cooperation and technology platform compliance. Operators must recognise that their duty of care performance directly impacts regulatory ability to maintain political support for the current framework.
Most critically, the pathway from legal to illegal gambling undermines channelisation strategy effectiveness. If licensed operators serve as gateways to unregulated alternatives rather than protective barriers, the regulatory model's core justification erodes. The upcoming World Cup presents both opportunity for player acquisition and risk of regulatory enforcement escalation, particularly regarding young adult protection measures that will likely influence future policy directions.
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