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Dutch Regulator Reports Licensed Gambling Market Shrank in 2025

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The Kansspelautoriteit, the Dutch gambling regulator, published its annual market scan and its half-yearly monitoring report on online gambling on October 29, 2026. The market scan shows the licensed Dutch gambling market shrank in 2025, mainly because of a decline in the online offering, while the monitoring report shows the number of online gambling accounts increasing in the first half of 2026.

2025 Market Scan

The KSA publishes its scan of the licensed gambling market each year, covering the previous year. The gross gaming result of the total market, online and offline, fell from €4.5 billion in 2024 to €4.1 billion in 2025. Gross gaming result, known in the Netherlands as BSR, is defined as stakes minus prizes paid out.

The 2025 decline came mainly from falling gross gaming result at online providers. For online casino offerings it fell 18.2%, and for online betting it fell 30.2%.

The regulator attributed these declines at least in part to the various measures introduced at the end of 2024 to better protect participants, such as the net deposit limit. It also noted that the men’s European football championship took place in 2024, which meant sports-betting gross gaming result was higher in that year.

On the land-based market, gross gaming result from slot machines in gambling halls and hospitality venues fell 4.7% in 2025 compared with 2024. Holland Casino saw its gross gaming result rise 2.8%, an increase that came mainly from its installed slot machines and not from the table games in which Holland Casino distinguishes itself. Gross gaming result at the various lotteries fell slightly, by 1.8% versus the previous year.

Online Accounts in the First Half of 2026

Alongside the market scan, the KSA published its monitoring report, which gives an overview of the online market in the first half of 2026. Besides gross gaming result, the report looks at other relevant figures, including the average loss of participants, the number of accounts and the channelisation rate.

In the first half of 2026, the number of accounts for online gambling rose to 1.48 million, from 1.38 million half a year earlier. The regulator described the increase as notable because the number of people who ever gamble has not significantly increased. The KSA estimates that about 490,000 people gamble online each month. Not everyone gambles every month: across the first half of 2026, about 820,000 people gambled online at some point.

The rise in new accounts may be partly due to the men’s football World Cup, which began in June 2026, the regulator said, but it could also mean people are creating multiple accounts to circumvent the deposit limits that apply per account.

Channelisation and Gambling-Harm Figures

The monitoring report also shows that channelisation, the percentage of people who gamble legally, appears to have stabilised. About 94% of people who ever gamble do so only with legal offerings.

Measured on the basis of gross gaming result, channelisation is estimated to have risen slightly in the first half of 2026 compared with the second half of 2025, from 54% to 59%. According to the KSA, the difference between participant-based and revenue-based channelisation suggests that people who gamble illegally on average suffer considerably higher losses than people who gamble with legal parties.

The monitoring report’s figures on people with a gambling addiction come from the National Alcohol and Drugs Information System and therefore cover 2025, unlike the monitor itself. In 2025, more than 14% more people were in treatment for a gambling addiction than in 2024.

The report also includes figures from Ipsos on the risk of harm among people who participate in gambling. In 2026, the number of people at high risk of gambling harm stayed the same, the number at low risk rose and the number at moderate risk fell. Ipsos estimates that 65% of people who gamble online do so non-problematically, the same percentage as in 2025.

The KSA published the monitoring report on spring 2026 and the market scan on 2025 as PDF documents, accompanied by factsheets, dashboards and the underlying CSV files.

Elena Markov is an AI-generated research agent for Gaming.net, tracking regulatory developments, licensing decisions, and enforcement actions in major gambling jurisdictions worldwide. Her reporting centers on specific policy changes, fines, auditor findings, and legal interpretations affecting licensed operators.

Elena’s articles parse regulatory documents and enforcement notices from bodies such as the UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority, and state regulators, explaining how these moves influence market access, operator obligations, and compliance costs. She foregrounds named regulators, actual rulings, timelines, and documented outcomes.

Articles authored by Elena Markov are AI-generated and reviewed by Gaming.net’s editorial team to ensure accuracy, clarity, and compliance-aware coverage of gambling regulation.