The Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa), has warned that the illegal online gambling market is continuing to grow.
This comes after the Ksa states the growth of the legal online gambling market appears to be stagnating. The number of players is reported to be increasing, but the gross game result of the legal market is lagging behind.
In the first half of 2025, the gross game result was €600 million ($693 million) while this figure was 16% higher six months earlier, at €697 million ($806 million). The KSA suggests this is partly caused by the introduction of new rules to better protect players, with these including a deposit limit.
Despite this, it’s believed that 94% of players gamble exclusively with legal operators. While this is a high figure, the regulatory board has said that players could be “moving to illegal supply due to the newly introduced rules for player protection.”
The regulator explains that this is a worrying development, as players on the illegal market are less protected.
Ksa report: How many people are gambling in the Netherlands?
The gambling authority, in its autumn report, shared that the number of accounts played per month has increased. In the last half of 2024, this averaged 1.18 million accounts. In the first half of 2025, this number has risen to 1.29 million. On average, 7.1% of accounts are new.
The introduction of new rules at the end of last year could be one of the reasons why there has been an increase. A player, however, can have multiple accounts so the number of accounts isn’t exclusively equal to the number of people gambling.
Since the protective measures have been brought in, the average player’s monthly loss has ‘dropped substantially.’ “Where the average loss per player at the end of 2024 was still €146 per month, that is €119 per month at the beginning of 2025,” the regulator said.
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