• The Secretary of State for Justice and Security, Claudia van Bruggen, published a multi-year protection agenda on Friday that proposes a near-total ban on online gambling advertising with narrow exceptions to maintain visibility for licensed operators
• The plan introduces a central deposit limit backed by an affordability test for bets above the threshold, with reduced limits for younger adults
• The government has scrapped its earlier proposal to raise the minimum gambling age for high-risk products such as online slots to 21, after the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) warned the change would push young adults toward the black market
• The measures will also apply to land-based venues, with the KSA receiving new enforcement powers to coordinate with financial institutions, digital platforms, suppliers and international partners
• Research cited in the agenda found that 69% of Dutch residents aged 16 and over gambled in at least one form in 2025, with half of 16 and 17-year-olds reporting they had gambled

The Netherlands Has Chosen Advertising and Affordability Over an Age Rise

The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security has published a five-year strategy for reducing gambling-related harm, building on policy signals contained in the coalition agreement released in February. The agenda was set out in a 16-page letter from Secretary of State Claudia van Bruggen to the Tweede Kamer on Friday, alongside a separate multi-year roadmap. According to the letter, the plan’s strategic goal is a measurable reduction in gambling losses in the Netherlands over the coming years, with prevention as the central organising principle.

The agenda’s headline measure is a near-complete ban on online gambling advertising, with limited exceptions designed to preserve visibility for legal operators against the unlicensed market. According to the government, the restrictions will extend to land-based gambling as well, after research the ministry cited identified a number of land-based offerings as high risk. The reforms also draw on the KSA’s April 2026 review, which concluded that the central deposit rules introduced in October 2024 had reduced problematic behaviour.

A second pillar is a central deposit limit applied across the licensed market, backed by an affordability test for bets above the threshold. Lower ceilings are planned for younger adults, an approach that follows similar Finnish moves where Veikkaus introduced age-based loss checkpoints earlier this year. The KSA will also be given expanded enforcement tools, including the ability to coordinate with payment providers, digital platforms, suppliers and international counterparts to disrupt unlicensed infrastructure. The Cruk self-exclusion register may be expanded to cover illegal gambling sites, and the agenda envisages a tightened duty of care for online operators advised by an external expert group.

Notably, van Bruggen confirmed that the earlier proposal to raise the minimum gambling age for high-risk products such as online slots to 21 has been dropped. According to the letter, the KSA had warned that a step that significant would drive a meaningful share of young adults toward illegal operators that offer no protection at all. Instead, the agenda focuses on stricter age verification, targeted prevention programmes and media-literacy work intended to expose algorithmic and marketing tactics aimed at younger users.

The agenda quoted research showing that 69% of Dutch residents aged 16 and over gambled in 2025, and that half of those aged 16 and 17, below the legal age of 18, reported having gambled. The Ministry of Justice and Security will lead implementation in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the KSA. Funding will come from the Addiction Prevention Fund managed by the regulator. Government officials have also flagged scrutiny of artificial intelligence applications inside online gambling environments, alongside possible restrictions on high-risk game features.

The Decision to Drop the Age-21 Rule Is the Real Story

The single most consequential move in this package is what is no longer in it. Raising the minimum age for online slots to 21 had been the most discussed lever in the Dutch reform debate, and the government has now stepped away from it on the explicit advice of its own regulator. The KSA’s judgment, that a sharp age cut would push young adults into the black market, is a textbook channelisation argument applied at the level of a single demographic. That the Ministry has accepted it sets an unusually clear precedent in Europe, where age-based restrictions are often introduced without a parallel assessment of where the displaced demand will go. The cost of that caution is that the Netherlands now has to do the harm-reduction work through other instruments, and the rest of the agenda has to carry weight the age rule would have carried on its own.

A Near-Total Ad Ban Will Test Whether Channelisation Can Survive Without Marketing

A near-complete advertising ban with narrow exceptions for licensed operators is the most aggressive marketing restriction proposed by a major European market in recent years, and its effect on channelisation is genuinely uncertain. The intuition that less advertising means less harm is well established, but the intuition that licensed operators can defend market share against unlicensed sites without any meaningful brand presence is not. Other European markets that have tightened advertising rules have generally retained more room for sponsorship and brand visibility than what is being proposed here. If the narrow exceptions are drawn tightly enough to satisfy the agenda’s public-health framing, they may be too tight to keep recreational players inside the regulated perimeter once the next major sporting cycle begins.

The Deposit Limit and Affordability Test Will Live or Die on Implementation Detail

The central deposit limit and the affordability test for bets above it are conceptually sound, but the design choices around them will determine whether the policy protects players or simply moves them. If the central limit is set conservatively and the affordability test is light and quick, the system functions as a meaningful default with a proportionate exit. If the limit is set tightly and the affordability test reproduces the kind of intrusive checks that have damaged channelisation in other markets, the most engaged players will look elsewhere. The agenda has not yet specified either the threshold or the form of the affordability assessment, and those details now matter more than the headline announcement. The Netherlands has set out the architecture of a credible regime. Whether it becomes one will depend on the parameters the ministry chooses, and on whether the KSA’s expanded enforcement powers actually disrupt the offshore operators that stand to benefit if implementation falters.