Dutch online gambling revenue rises 11% in first half of 2026

The Netherlands’ regulated online gambling market gross gaming yield rose by about 11% in the first half of 2026 compared with the previous six months, the KSA said. Licensed operators generated around €670 million ($750 million) in BSR, roughly €110 million a month.

Casino games played against the house accounted for about 73% of the total, or €492 million. Sports betting made up around 24%, or €163 million, up from approximately 20% in the second half of 2025. The KSA said the rise in sports betting and overall revenue may be linked to the men’s FIFA World Cup.

Market share and player activity

The Dutch licensed market captured around 59% of total gross gaming yield in 2025, up from 54% the previous year. Licensed operators reported an average of 1.48 million active accounts per month in the first half of 2026, up from 1.38 million in the second half of 2025. Across the first half of 2026, 563,000 accounts were opened, compared with 529,000 in the previous six-month period.

The KSA estimated that 820,000 people gambled with licensed providers at some point during the first half of 2026, with about 490,000 on an average month. The share of players using legal providers was estimated at between 94% and 97%. For the first half of 2026, the regulator estimates that around 20,000 people gambled exclusively with unlicensed operators each month, while another 10,000 used both licensed and unlicensed sites.

Player spending and youth participation

Licensed operators reported a mean monthly loss of €75 per account in the first half of 2026. A KSA estimate accounting for people using multiple accounts put average losses at €137 per person per month, up from €121 in the second half of 2025. For accounts used by 18–23-year-olds, the average monthly loss was €34.

People aged 18-23 accounted for about 22% of legal gambling accounts, despite representing roughly 9.2% of the adult population. Out of 15,761 newly funded gambling accounts opened between 1-7 May 2026, young adults aged 18-24 comprised 33% of new accounts, with 41% of these accounts opened by newly turned 18-year-olds. In 2024-25, 11% of accounts opened by 18-year-olds were registered on their birthday, and 38% within a month.

Harm and advertising

In 2025, 3,108 people received specialised treatment where gambling was recorded as their primary problem, a 14% increase on 2024. The national self-exclusion register, Cruks, added an average of about 2,076 people a month, reaching approximately 120,200 registrations by 31 July 2026.

Online advertising by licensed operators declined by about 33%, from an average of 75,000 placements a month in the second half of 2025 to around 50,000 in the first half of 2026. In June, the Dutch government tabled a near-total ban of online gambling advertisement.

VNLOK officially summoned Meta to court after alleging the tech giant had allowed widespread illegal gambling advertisements to reach consumers in the Netherlands. The association has claimed that more than 90% of gambling advertisements on Facebook originate from operators that are not licensed in the Netherlands.