- The legal background: from 1964 to the Remote Gambling Act
- Who regulates the market: the Kansspelautoriteit
- How a Dutch online gambling licence works
- Player protection: the rules every licensed site must follow
- Deposit limits and affordability checks
- Cruks, the self-exclusion register
- Advertising rules and the impact on football
- Tax: one of the highest rates in Europe
- The biggest problem: the illegal market
- What comes next: a near-total ad ban
- The bottom line
Betting logos have vanished from Eredivisie shirts, the tax rate has climbed to 37.8% and, by one measure, illegal sites now earn more than licensed ones. Here is how Dutch online gambling law works, and why the system that opened in 2021 is under so much pressure.
Watch an Eredivisie match today and you will notice something missing. Until mid-2025, betting brands were everywhere in Dutch football, on shirts, sleeves and stadium boards. Since 1 July 2025, gambling companies have not been allowed to sponsor sports teams at all. That change is one part of a much bigger story about how the Netherlands regulates online gambling.
The country only opened a legal online market in October 2021, and it has been tightening the rules almost every year since. This guide explains the law behind the market, how a Dutch licence works, the main player-protection and advertising rules, what the changes mean for football, and why the government is now planning its toughest reforms yet.
The legal background: from 1964 to the Remote Gambling Act
Dutch gambling is still based on the Betting and Gaming Act (Wet op de kansspelen) of 1964. For decades it did not allow licensed online gambling, yet many Dutch players used foreign websites anyway. Lawmakers decided it was better to bring that activity under Dutch supervision than to leave it completely unregulated.
The answer was the Remote Gambling Act, known in Dutch as the Wet Koa. It took effect on 1 April 2021, and the first licensed operators went live on 1 October 2021. From that date, offering online casino games, sports betting or poker to people in the Netherlands without a Dutch licence has been illegal.
Who regulates the market: the Kansspelautoriteit
The regulator is the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands Gambling Authority. It was set up in 2012 as an independent administrative body, is funded by levies on the gambling industry, and has its board appointed by the Ministry of Justice and Security. Its chairman is Michel Groothuizen.
The KSA has three main jobs. It issues licences, it supervises licensed operators, and it fights illegal gambling. It also manages Cruks, the national self-exclusion register. Policy decisions, such as new advertising bans or tax changes, come from the government and parliament, while the KSA enforces the rules in practice.
How a Dutch online gambling licence works
A Dutch online licence lasts five years and cannot simply be extended. Operators must apply again and pass a full reassessment. In the first round in 2021, the KSA handled 33 applications, which resulted in 11 licences. Those first licences expire at the end of September 2026.
For the second cycle, applicants had to disclose any rule breaches from the previous five years and show what they had fixed. They also had to submit an anti-money laundering risk analysis and an exit plan explaining how they would close safely if refused. Since 1 January 2026, new applications can no longer rely on bank guarantees or third-party accounts.
On 17 September 2026, the KSA announced the first eight follow-up licences, valid from October 2026 to September 2031. They went to TOTO Online (TOTO and Winnitt), Holland Casino Online, Play North (Kansino), FairPlay Casino, Bingoal, Hillside (bet365), NSUS Malta (GG Poker) and Betent (Betcity).
Player protection: the rules every licensed site must follow
Deposit limits and affordability checks
Since 1 October 2024, new rules have controlled how much players can deposit. A new adult player starts with a default monthly limit of €350, or €150 for players aged up to 24. A higher limit is only possible after personal contact with the operator, which must explain the risks and point the player to help and to Cruks.
Above certain levels, operators must also check whether a player can actually afford to gamble. This applies to deposits of more than €700 per month, or €300 per month for young adults. If the operator cannot reach the player, it must restrict the account. Players also see a pop-up every 30 minutes showing how long they have played and their limits.
Cruks, the self-exclusion register
Cruks lets people block themselves from all licensed online gambling, as well as Dutch casinos and gaming arcades. The minimum period is six months, and an eight-day reflection period stops impulsive decisions to leave the register. Sign-ups have grown quickly, from about 61,000 in 2024 to 111,534 by the end of January 2026.
Advertising rules and the impact on football
Advertising has been cut back in stages. Since July 2023, untargeted online gambling advertising has been banned, which removed adverts from TV, radio, public spaces and print. Using famous role models, such as athletes, in gambling adverts is also prohibited. A ban on sponsoring TV programmes followed on 1 July 2024.
The step that football fans noticed most came on 1 July 2025, when sports sponsorship by gambling companies ended. It covers clubs, teams and kits, and individual athletes can no longer be brand ambassadors. The deals had been given a transition period because sponsorship contracts often run for several years. In the first week, the KSA reported only minor breaches, such as a gambling logo still visible on club merchandise sold online.
The financial impact on clubs is real. Research from Erasmus University Rotterdam noted that 33 of 34 Dutch professional football clubs were sponsored by gambling companies before the ban, and warned that smaller clubs were especially vulnerable. Gambling brands can still reach Dutch fans through international competitions and foreign broadcasts, which the national rules cannot control.
Tax: one of the highest rates in Europe
Licensed operators pay gambling tax on their gross gaming revenue. The rate was 30.5% in 2024, rose to 34.2% on 1 January 2025 and to 37.8% on 1 January 2026. The aim was to raise extra money for the state, but the results have disappointed.
A June 2026 monitoring report by the Ministry of Finance and the KSA found that the 2025 increase brought in only about €2 million of extra revenue, against a forecast of €108 million. For 2026, the estimate was about €57 million instead of the expected €216 million. The report linked the shortfall to a shrinking tax base, deposit limits, the sponsorship bans and the end of the revenue boost from Euro 2024.
The biggest problem: the illegal market
Regulators measure success through channelisation, the share of gambling that happens with licensed companies. The KSA’s 2025 annual report showed that, measured by money spent, channelisation fell from 51% at the end of 2024 to 49% in the first half of 2025. Illegal operators earned an estimated €617 million in that period, slightly more than the roughly €600 million made by licensed sites.
Measured by players rather than money, the picture looks better, at about 94% in 2025. In other words, most Dutch gamblers still have accounts with licensed operators, but a growing share of their spending goes elsewhere. The licensed sector itself recorded €602 million in gross gaming revenue in the second half of 2025, roughly flat on the year before.
The KSA is fighting back. In 2025 it received 2,005 reports about illegal gambling, up 34%, and fined illegal operators a total of €31.2 million. In March 2026 it fined offshore operator Novatech €24.9 million, its highest fine against an unlicensed company. Fines are capped at 10% of global turnover, and Groothuizen said that without this cap the Novatech fine would have passed €100 million. Collecting fines from companies abroad remains difficult.
Licensed operators are watched closely too. In 2025, five of them received fines totalling €8.6 million. Industry groups such as VNLOK argue that stricter rules and higher taxes make licensed sites less attractive, while the government says player protection must come first.
What comes next: a near-total ad ban
On 12 June 2026, State Secretary Claudia van Bruggen presented the government’s next set of reforms. The plan includes a near-total ban on online gambling advertising, with exceptions only for an operator’s own website and search results, and a ban on bonuses such as free bets. It also proposes one deposit limit across all licensed sites and stronger affordability checks.
Other ideas include allowing indefinite Cruks registration, making it easier for family members to register someone, blocking illegal websites and adding duties for payment and hosting companies. Officials are also studying a cap on the number of licences. A plan to raise the minimum age from 18 to 21 was shelved, because the government feared young players would move to illegal sites.
The concern behind the reforms is clear. People aged 18 to 23 make up 9.3% of Dutch adults but hold 22% of active gambling accounts. Nothing is law yet, however. In September 2026, Van Bruggen told parliament that a consultation on the new legislation is expected in early 2027, a timeline she described as ambitious.
The bottom line
The Netherlands built a licensed online market to bring players under supervision, then added deposit limits, self-exclusion, advertising bans and higher taxes to protect them. For football, the result is cleaner shirts and less money for clubs. The open question is whether even stricter rules will protect players or push more of them towards sites that follow none of these rules.
