The Dutch regulated gambling market captured approximately 59% of the total gross gaming revenue (BSR) in 2025, a rise from 54% in the prior year. This data comes from the Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa), which released its annual report for 2025 alongside a semi-annual report for the first half of 2026 on Thursday.
Regaining its momentum, the Netherlands' regulated online gambling sector saw a gross gaming yield increase of about 11% in the first half of 2026 compared to the previous six months, as reported by the regulator. In its eleventh monitoring report, covering January to June, the KSA estimated that licensed operators earned around €670 million ($750 million) in BSR, averaging roughly €110 million each month.
Casino games against the house represented about 73% of the total revenue, translating to around €492 million, while sports betting accounted for around 24%, or €163 million, showing an increase from roughly 20% in the latter half of 2025. The KSA indicated that this spike in sports betting revenue might correlate with the men's FIFA World Cup. The regulator noted that month-to-month variations were more pronounced in sports wagering compared to casino activities, alongside a noticeable uptick in new accounts in June.
During the first half of the year, 563,000 new accounts were created, up from 529,000 in the previous six-month period.
Estimating the unlicensed gambling market continues to pose challenges for the KSA. The regulator utilized GfK panel data on participation, supplemented by a Google Ads search-volume method, to gauge revenue generated by illegal sites.
For the first half of 2026, the KSA estimated that around 20,000 individuals engaged exclusively with unlicensed operators monthly, while an additional 10,000 used both licensed and unlicensed platforms.
Depending on the methodology employed, the share of gamblers using legal providers ranged from 94% to 97%. The disparity between the low count of users on illegal sites and their estimated revenue share suggests that these players are likely losing significantly more on average compared to users of licensed operators. Despite this, the regulator stressed that these illegal market estimates are uncertain, and they are working to refine measurement methods further.
While licensed operators reported an average of 1.48 million active accounts monthly—up from 1.38 million in the second half of 2025—independent panel data from GfK indicated that the number of individuals gambling with legal providers remained unchanged. The KSA approximated that about 820,000 people gambled with licensed providers at some point during the first half of 2026, averaging about 490,000 each month.
The growing number of accounts against a stable player count suggests that many individuals may be utilizing multiple accounts more frequently, an adjustment possibly linked to regulatory changes, including net deposit limits implemented in October 2024.
When examining player losses and risk, average monthly losses per account remained largely steady. Licensed operators reported a mean loss of €75 per month during the first half of 2026, while accounts belonging to those aged 18–23 averaged monthly losses of €34.
A separate estimation by KSA, factoring in users with multiple accounts and intermittent gambling, pegged average losses at €137 per person per month, up from €121 in the previous half of 2025.
Young adults have become a particular focus in this context. People aged 18-23 represented about 22% of legal gambling accounts, despite constituting roughly 9.2% of the adult population. Earlier this year, KSA found that out of 15,761 new gambling accounts opened between May 1-7, 2026, young adults aged 18-24 accounted for 33% of these accounts. Notably, 41% of those accounts were created by individuals who had just turned 18.
There was also a notable spike in account registrations just after individuals celebrated their 18th birthday. In the years 2024-2025, 11% of accounts opened by 18-year-olds were registered on their birthday, while 38% were logged within a month following.
The demand for support services has also risen, as evidenced by the 3,108 individuals who received specialized treatment for gambling problems in 2025, marking a 14% increase from 2024. The national self-exclusion register, Cruks, registered an average of about 2,076 new individuals each month, reaching approximately 120,200 registrations by July 31, 2026. The report noted a significant rise in involuntary registrations following notifications from operators.
On the advertising front, licensed operators decreased their online advertising by about 33%, dropping from an average of 75,000 placements per month in the latter half of 2025 to around 50,000 in the first half of 2026.
The Dutch government has continued its efforts against gambling advertisements this year. In June, it proposed a near-total ban on online gambling promotions, likening gambling to sex work. Additionally, the VNLOK has officially taken Meta to court, alleging that the tech giant allowed a widespread distribution of illegal gambling advertisements targeting consumers in the Netherlands, claiming more than 90% of gambling ads on Facebook originated from unlicensed operators in the region.
