The Dutch gambling regulator says there remains a “significant difference” between the channelisation rate for player activity and gaming spend.
In its latest report on the Netherlands’ gambling market, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) said 91 per cent of players use legal and regulated operators.
However, of the money spent with all operators, licensed or unlicensed, “much more money” is spent on the illegal market, the KSA said.
It said 50 per cent of the total amount Dutch players spend on gaming goes to illegal brands.
The KSA also reflected on the evolution of the Dutch regulated online gaming market since the introduction of deposit limits in October.
The regulator said players are “losing less money” and that substantial losses have “dropped significantly.”
The average player aged 24 and over lost €148 per month to gambling in the second half of 2024, down from €160 in the first six months of the year.
“Before October 2024, four per cent of accounts lost more than €1,000 per month; after October, this fell to just 1.2 per cent,” the KSA said.
“Prior to October 1, 2024, 73 per cent of the GGR came from players with losses over €1,000. Following the implementation of the new rules, this percentage dropped to 23 per cent, meaning operators are generating less income from high-loss accounts.”
Overall online gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the Netherlands for 2024 was €1.47bn, up six per cent compared with 2023’s GGR of €1.39bn.
The GGR was 10 per cent lower in the second half of the year than the first six months of the year, which the KSA said could have related to a peak in betting ahead of and during the first part of football’s European Championships last summer.
The regulator said players aged between 18 and 24 account for 11 per cent of GGR but only nine per cent of the population.
“However, they spend less money on average; they lose about €48 per month compared to €148 for players aged 24 and older,” it added.
“Notably, young adults bet on sports more frequently than older age groups: 29 per cent of their spending goes to sports betting, compared to 22 per cent among other players.”
In the last six months, the KSA recorded an average of 1.19 million active accounts per month, up from 1.1 million in the previous six-month period.
“One player can have multiple accounts, so the number of accounts does not equal the number of gamblers,” the regulator noted.
“It is estimated that 788,000 players were active with legal operators in the last six months, representing 5.4 per cent of the adult population. This is nearly the same as the 5.5 per cent reported six months earlier, indicating a stable player base.”
