Dutch Gambling Ad Ban Risks Pushing Players Offshore as Legal Share Falls Below 50%

Justice and Security State Secretary Claudia van Bruggen announced the package on June 12, proposing a near-total ban on online gambling advertising, a prohibition on bonuses such as sign-up free bets, an overarching deposit limit across licensed platforms, and an affordability test for players who want to raise it. The cabinet is also studying a cap on the number of online licenses. Van Bruggen said it is “particularly concerning” that more people, especially young people, have started gambling online and run into trouble. The measures require legislation before taking effect.

The Netherlands already restricts gambling ads heavily – a role-model ban and a prohibition on untargeted advertising have been in force since 2022 and 2023 – bur officials concluded young people still see too much promotion. Notably, the government has signaled it will only revisit raising the minimum online gambling age from 18 to 21 once enforcement against illegal operators is effective, deeming the step too risky before then.

In its 2025 annual report, the KSA (Kansspelautoriteit), the Dutch regulator, said channelization by spend fell below 50% in the first half of 2025 – meaning unlicensed operators now capture most gambling money in the country, even as roughly 94% of players stay registered with licensed sites. This shift followed earlier tightening (monthly deposit limits of €700, or €300 for 18-to-24s, and gambling-tax rises from 30.5% to 37.8%). The pattern echoes Belgium and Italy, where ad bans coincided with black-market growth; one study put the Dutch illegal share above 35% by late 2023, up from about 20% in 2021.

The cabinet pairs the ban with tougher enforcement precisely because it expects leakage, saying tens of thousands of illegal sites are active in the country. The scale – and the crypto dimension – surfaced in April when state lottery operator Nederlandse Loterij sued the operators of Qbet, the largest unlicensed Dutch platform, at The Hague. There, the KSA’s record €24.8 million fine was branded too low by its own chair – Dutch law caps penalties at 10% of global turnover – and crypto and anonymous payments were cited as aggravating factors in a market where half of spend flows to unlicensed sites.

Van Bruggen has acknowledged the risk herself, saying the ban must be built with enforceability in mind to prevent evasion. That leaves the central question open: whether stripping licensed operators of advertising and bonuses protects players, or hands the offshore market – flagged by regulators for crypto and anonymous payments, and beyond the reach of Cruks, the national self-exclusion register – a larger share of a market it is already winning. The bill must clear the House of Representatives, and the affordability study underpinning the deposit cap is not expected until the first half of 2027.