Dutch online gambling market shrinks by 18% while illegal offers grow

The online gambling market has shrunk significantly over the past year, the Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) said in its annual report for 2025. At the same time, the number of reports regarding illegal offerings increased, indicating an expansion of that market.

Based on levies, the KSA concluded that the online gambling market shrank by 18.5 percent. According to the authority, this is due to policy measures that took effect in October 2024. These include limiting high stakes and increasing the gambling tax.

At the same time, the number of reports about illegal offerings rose by 34 percent to 2,005. Because these continue to rise, the KSA launched a project aimed at disrupting and thwarting the infrastructure that illegal providers need for their revenue model.

The authority further reported that it imposed a total of €8.6 million in fines on legal providers. It also imposed four fines totalling €31.2 million on illegal providers.

Online gambling has been legally permitted in the Netherlands since October 2021. Since then, companies have been able to apply for a license from the KSA to offer online gambling games to consumers in the Netherlands.

The fact that the illegal market continues to grow was already evident from the KSA’s semi-annual monitor in October. The authority then stated that more money is gambled illegally than legally (about 53 percent). This is even though 94 percent of gamblers only play on legal sites.