Netherlands: deposit limit rules changed gambling behaviour
Restrictions on online gambling deposits in the Netherlands have cut average losses for active accounts and sharply reduced the share of players spending beyond set thresholds, according to a new assessment by the Dutch regulator.
The Netherlands Gambling Authority, Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa), said the measures introduced on 1 October 2024 appear to have changed behaviour quickly: fewer new customers are setting high deposit limits and far fewer accounts are exceeding monthly net deposit benchmarks that trigger intervention by operators.
The changes, however, have not come without cost to the licensed sector. The Ksa reports that operator revenue has fallen since the rules took effect, while indicators of interest in unlicensed sites have risen.
Big spenders curtailed
The new regime introduced two main measures: tougher checks for players who want high monthly deposit limits, and a stronger expectation that operators will step in when net deposits reach certain levels.
Under the Regulation on Spending Limits and More Conscious Gambling Behaviour, players must get in touch with an operator if they want to set a monthly gross deposit limit above €350 (or €150 for young adults under 24). The Ksa says the “intended effect” was straightforward: “players would set lower limits and lose less money as a result.”
Alongside that, the Administrative Rule on Responsible Gaming 2024 sets out the signal the regulator expects companies to treat as a warning that a player may be losing control. “Such a signal will exist, in any event, if a player makes net deposits of more than 300 euros (young adults aged 18 to 24) or 700 euros (24 and older) in a calendar month,” the report says.
Where that line is crossed, the Ksa says it is “appropriate, in principle, for the operator to block further deposits from that player for the remainder of the calendar month.”
The regulator’s data suggests the combination is biting. Before the new rules, “9,7 percent players deposited more than the net deposit limits,” the paper says. “In October 2024, that rate dropped to 3,8 percent and it fell further, to 2,2 percent, in March 2025.”
One reason the decline continued into 2025, the Ksa notes, may have been pressure on companies to apply financial capacity checks properly: “One possible explanation for this further decline is that, at the beginning of February 2025, the Ksa called operators to account with regard to the implementation of the financial capacity tests.”
The clearest headline impact is on player losses. “In the eight months since the new rules took effect, the loss per account was 31 percent lower than in the previous eight months (down from 116 euros to 81 euros per month),” the report says.
The distribution of losses also shifted, with the steepest change among the heaviest-losing accounts. “The percentage of accounts that lost more than 1,000 euros fell from 3,9 percent before October 2024 to 0,9 percent after the rules were introduced,” the Ksa reports.
And the paper argues that the industry is now taking less money from extreme losses than before. “Before 1 October 2024, 74 percent of the GGR came from accounts with losses of more than 1.000 euros. This percentage dropped to 21 percent after the rules were introduced.”
Revenue down, but players stay legal
The Dutch regulator is frank about the impact on operator income. “The new rules affect the GGR of licensed online gambling operators,” it says, describing a sharp fall immediately after the October start date.
By May 2025, the last month covered in the paper, “the GGR was 16 percent lower than in September 2024, the last month before the new rules were introduced,” it adds.
Yet the number of active accounts did not collapse. In fact, the report says accounts grew faster after the reforms than before them: “The number of accounts increased by an average of 1,1 percent per month before October 2024. After that, the number of accounts increased by an average of 2,3 percent per month.”
Regulators have long worried that tighter controls on licensed gambling could push customers to unregulated providers. On the central question of channelling, the Ksa says the picture depends on what is measured.
Using GfK data (the German-based market research and consumer insights company) on website visits, “the channelling rate in terms of players did not drop significantly after the new rules were introduced,” the paper says. It adds that the share of players visiting only legal sites averaged 93% in the first quarter of 2025, while 96% visited legal sites even if they may also have visited illegal ones.
But the regulator also reports a rise in online interest in illegal operators. “In the months before 1 October 2024, the search volume averaged 765 thousand per month. From October 2024 onwards it has averaged 941 thousand. That is an increase of 23 percent,” it says, while cautioning that “it is not yet possible to determine the size of the illegal market.”
The Ksa’s own conclusion is guarded: “The figures do indicate that the illegal market has grown.”
A regulator tightening on multiple fronts
The Dutch authority has increasingly framed gambling harm as a public health problem.
Earlier this month, the Ksa told licensed operators to remove a social feature that allowed bettors to circulate wagers to friends and contacts. The “Share your bet” feature, the regulator said, “can act like hidden advertising and may expose vulnerable people, including minors and people with gambling problems, to betting content they should not see.”
In December, the authority also backed a national initiative aimed at identifying gambling problems earlier, drawing on levies paid by licensed firms. The Ksa approved “close to €2 million in funding” for the Dutch Partnership for Early Detection of Gambling Damage, SVSG, with pilots “scheduled to begin in early 2026 across five regions.”
Taken together, the new Dutch evidence points to a model of regulation that is willing to accept some decline in licensed revenue to do so. The unresolved question is whether that approach can keep most play in the regulated market, even as restrictions tighten and consumers are tempted by fewer checks elsewhere.
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