More illegal than legal online gambling for the first time since legalization

In the first half of this year, gamblers in the Netherlands spent more money in the illegal market than in the legal one. This was the first time this happened since the Netherlands legalized online gambling in 2021, the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) reported in its biannual monitor.

The KSA estimates the size of the illegal gambling market at €617 million in the first half of the year. The legal market was €600 million. According to the regulator, the government’s extra measures to protect gamblers against addiction are having mixed effects.

Earlier this year, the government increased the age limit for high-risk gambling from 18 to 21 years and introduced a deposit limit per player, among other things. According to the KSA, the measures did decrease the amount of money lost in the legal online gambling market, from an average of €146 to €119 per player.

But players are now also turning to illegal offers, where the new restrictive rules don’t apply, more often. “We find this a worrying development, as players in the illegal market are much less protected,” the KSA said.

In the first half of the year, there were 1.29 million active gambling accounts, up from 1.18 million six months earlier. A player can have multiple accounts, so the number of accounts is not equal to the number of gamblers.

According to KSA, around 839,000 people actively gambled with legal providers in the first half of 2025. That amounts to 5.7 percent of the adult population, up from 5.4 percent in the second half of 2024.

Young adults, aged 18 to 24, held 23 percent of the accounts used in the first half of this year. “This is relatively high, as they represent only 9.3 percent of the population,” KSA said.

Compared to the total player population, young adults engage relatively more in sports betting. In the adult population as a whole, slot machines are the most popular form of gambling.