In 2025, the Dutch licensed gambling market secured approximately 59% of the total gross gaming yield (BSR), an increase from 54% in the previous year. This information comes from the Kansspelautoriteit’s (Ksa) annual report for 2025 and semi-annual report for the first half of 2026, released recently.
Momentum returned for the Netherlands’ regulated online gambling sector in the first half of 2026, with gross gaming yield rising by roughly 11% compared to the previous six months, as indicated by the regulator. The latest monitoring report, covering January to June, estimated that licensed operators earned about €670 million ($750 million) in BSR, translating to approximately €110 million per month.
Casino games against the house accounted for around 73% of the total BSR, amounting to €492 million, while sports betting represented about 24% or €163 million, rising from around 20% in the last half of 2025. The KSA linked the growth in sports betting and overall revenue to the men’s FIFA World Cup, noting that wagering on sports displayed larger month-to-month fluctuations compared to casino games. Additionally, there was a notable surge in new accounts registered in June.
The first half of the year saw 563,000 new accounts opened, a slight increase from 529,000 in the previous half-year period.
Estimating the unlicensed gambling market has been challenging for the KSA. By integrating GfK panel data with a Google Ads search-volume method, the regulator estimated that about 20,000 individuals exclusively participated in illegal gambling each month, alongside another 10,000 who used both licensed and unlicensed sites. Estimates indicated that 94% to 97% of players engaged with legal providers.
The small number of users engaging in illegal gambling compared to their revenue share implies that those in the illegal market might incur significantly higher losses than their licensed counterparts. The KSA cautioned that estimates of the illegal market are inherently uncertain and emphasized ongoing refinements to their measurement techniques.
Although licensed operators reported an increase in average active accounts per month from 1.38 million to 1.48 million since the last half of 2025, independent data from GfK showed the number of individuals gambling with licensed operators remained unchanged. It was estimated that 820,000 people gambled with licensed providers at some point during the first half of 2026, with approximately 490,000 engaging per month. The disparity between rising account numbers and a stable player base suggests an increase in the use of multiple accounts, potentially in response to regulatory changes including net deposit limits introduced in October 2024.
The average monthly losses per account showed little variation, with licensed operators reporting a mean loss of €75 per month in the first half of 2026. Notably, accounts belonging to 18–23-year-olds had an average loss of €34 per month. When accounting for intermittent gambling and multiple accounts, the average losses per person rose to €137 monthly, an increase from €121 in the prior half-year.
Young adults remain a focal point in gambling statistics, comprising about 22% of legal gambling accounts despite making up roughly 9.2% of the adult population. The KSA revealed that among 15,761 new gambling accounts opened between May 1-7, 2026, individuals aged 18-24 made up 33% of those accounts, with 41% initiated by recently turned 18-year-olds. There was also a marked spike in registrations around their birthdays; in 2024-25, 11% of accounts by 18-year-olds were opened on their birthday, while 38% did so within a month.
The demand for support services for gambling-related issues has grown, with 3,108 individuals receiving specialized treatment in 2025, a 14% rise from the previous year. The national self-exclusion register, Cruks, added an average of around 2,076 people monthly, totaling approximately 120,200 registrations by July 31, 2026. The KSA recorded a significant uptick in involuntary registrations due to operator notifications.
Online advertising from licensed operators dropped by about 33% from an average of 75,000 monthly placements 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, proposing a near-total ban in June. There have also been legal actions initiated by VNLOK against Meta, accusing the company of allowing widespread illegal gambling advertisements to be served to consumers in the Netherlands, with claims that over 90% of gambling ads on Facebook originate from unlicensed operators.
