When the Netherlands implemented the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) in October 2021, regulators promised a “safe, transparent, and consumer-protected” online gaming market. Four years later, that vision is unraveling. The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch gambling authority, is now under growing pressure as its strict advertising bans and compliance mandates appear to have backfired — pushing more Dutch players toward the very unregulated market the law sought to eliminate.
Recent data reveal that unlicensed iGaming operators now control up to 56% of the Dutch online gambling market, surpassing the licensed sector for the first time. Analysts attribute this surge to the 2023 Ban on Untargeted Advertising, which eliminated nearly all legal marketing avenues for licensed operators. Without visibility, legitimate brands such as Bet365, Kindred Group’s Unibet, Entain’s BetCity.nl, and JOI Gaming’s Jacks.nl have seen new player registrations fall by double digits.
Paradoxically, the measure intended to protect players has driven them to unlicensed platforms that promise bonuses, anonymity, and unrestricted crypto payments. These illegal sites operate beyond KSA’s reach, using offshore servers and aggressive affiliate networks to target Dutch players on social media.
To counter this, the KSA, under chairman René Jansen, has escalated enforcement. Between 2023 and 2025, it issued €27 million in fines, including landmark penalties against N1 Interactive Ltd. (€12.6 million) and Videoslots Ltd. (€9.9 million). Yet Jansen admits the deterrent effect remains limited: “We are sanctioning faster, but new violations appear almost instantly,” he said during a parliamentary briefing in The Hague.
In October 2025, the KSA extended its crackdown to social media influencers. The regulator warned dozens of creators — some with audiences exceeding 500,000 followers — for promoting illegal gambling sites on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch. The agency has begun coordinating with the Dutch Media Authority and Interpol to track these promotions across borders, but insiders acknowledge enforcement is reactive and under-resourced.
The KSA currently has fewer than 80 inspectors to oversee a €1.4-billion market, relying on manual reports and limited digital tools to trace illegal campaigns. Meanwhile, industry groups argue that legitimate operators are suffocating under the current policy. “When compliance kills competitiveness, the illegal market wins,” warned a spokesperson from the Netherlands Online Gambling Association (NOGA).
Financially, the implications are serious: declining legal revenue means lower tax collection and weakened consumer safeguards. Politically, pressure is mounting for the Dutch Parliament to revisit the KOA’s implementation and possibly relax marketing restrictions to restore market equilibrium.
The Netherlands’ situation is now a case study in regulatory overcorrection — proving that too much protection can end up protecting no one. For Europe’s gaming policymakers, the Dutch backlash offers a critical lesson: sustainability in regulation lies not in prohibition, but in balance.
