KSA: Illegal Gaming Grows as Regulated Market Stagnates

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands’ gambling regulator, has published its Fall 2025 monitoring report, highlighting some trends. According to the authority, the unregulated gaming sector continues to grow while the growth of regulated gaming continues to lag behind.

The Netherlands’ New Rules Affected the Market

The report suggested that the number of gamblers continues to increase but that the revenue share of the legal sector is experiencing a slowdown, while the black market’s revenue continues to increase.

According to the KSA’s Fall 2025 report, the H1 2025 results experienced a significant slowdown in terms of gross gaming revenue (GGR), which reached EUR 600 million. For comparison, licensed gaming operators reported EUR 697 million in GGR for H2 2024.

Among other things, the market was affected by the Netherlands’ new player protection rules, which added controversial deposit limits designed to prevent customers from overspending.

The Total Number of Players Increased

The KSA said that the monthly number of active accounts has continued to steadily increase. In H2 2024, the number reached 1.18 million, rising to 1.29 million in H1 2025. The KSA added that, on average, 7.1% of the accounts in H1 2025 were new. The KSA added that 23% of the accounts belonged to young adults.

The KSA, however, noted that the increasing number of accounts does not necessarily mean more players, as many have been creating extra accounts due to the aforementioned deposit limits.

The KSA added that there were approximately 839,000 unique active players playing with legal providers. This figure suggests that 5.7% of all Dutch adults gambled legally, up 0.3% from H2 2024.

At the same time, players’ monthly losses have decreased on average. Previously, players lost roughly EUR 146 a month. This was reduced to EUR 119 a month in H1 2025. The KSA added that this figure takes into account the fact that players may gamble with multiple operators and may not play every month.

Player Channelization Stable, Gambling Money Channelization – Not So Much

The KSA also commented on the Netherlands’ channelization rates, saying that they remain relatively stable. Despite the concerning revenue growth of illegal gambling, the KSA determined that 94% of all Dutch gamblers play with legal companies.

Despite that, unlicensed companies continue to take a huge chunk of all money gambled due to their laxer restrictions. As a result, the channelization of gambling funds decreased from 51% to 49%, which the KSA called a “worrying development.”