Netherlands

The Dutch cabinet has dropped its plan to raise the online slots age to 21 and instead bet its five-year strategy on a near-total ad ban and a market-wide deposit cap. The gamble: deepen protection inside the licensed market without pushing players, and their money, to the black market.

A debt crisis among young people in Enschede has reopened a Dutch debate that won't go away. With one in five local youngsters in debt, a councillor is pushing for the legal online gambling age to climb to 24, a level that would be unprecedented in Europe.

The Netherlands has flagged thousands of unlicensed gambling adverts to Meta in a single month. With the country's licensed market shrinking and the black market growing, the role of social platforms in fuelling that shift is becoming impossible to ignore.

The return of 888 to the Netherlands via a ComeOn Group licence has triggered formal parliamentary scrutiny. The answers could reshape how the Dutch regulator assesses the history of operators seeking market access through third-party arrangements.

The Dutch regulator has found serious gaps between Unibet's stated anti-money laundering policies and what it actually does in practice. And Unibet may not be the only operator in the crosshairs.

The Kansspelautoriteit has handed Novatech a record €24.8m fine for operating Qbet.com and 55Bet.com illegally in the Netherlands, as the Dutch regulator signals it will pursue the entire ecosystem behind unlicensed gambling - including influencers, payment providers, and hosting companies.

Dutch operators have urged lawmakers to revisit the Netherlands’ rising gambling tax, claiming the policy has reduced receipts by an estimated €43.5m in 2025 and is accelerating movement to unlicensed sites ahead of a parliamentary committee debate on 11 March.

The Netherlands Gambling Authority has reported a rise in cases of athletes betting on their own competitions during 2025, while overall match fixing alerts from licensed sportsbooks remained broadly stable and prompted renewed focus on integrity controls and reporting expectations.