Dutch Licensed Gambling Market Shrinks to €4.1bn in 2025, but Online Revenue Is Recovering

^{Holland Casino in Amsterdam grew its gross gaming revenue 2.8% in 2025, according to the Dutch regulator's annual market scan. (Photo: Jorge Franganillo / Wikimedia Commons)}

The Dutch licensed gambling market shrank to €4.1 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR) in 2025, down from €4.5 billion in 2024, according to the annual market scan from the Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa). The regulator published the scan on 29 October 2026 alongside its half-yearly monitoring report on online gambling for the first half of 2026.

The fall came mostly from online. Early 2026 figures show a turn, with licensed online GGR climbing back to €670 million in the first six months of the year, up from €602 million in the second half of 2025.

Online Segments Drive the Decline

Total online GGR was €1.20 billion in 2025, against €1.52 billion in 2024, a drop of 21.0%. Online casino GGR fell 18.2%, from €1.16 billion to €947 million. Online sports betting fell 30.2%, which the Ksa puts at €110 million lower than a year earlier.

The regulator ties the drop at least partly to the player protection rules introduced on 1 October 2024, including the net deposit limit, which has been pushing some Dutch players towards offshore casinos. It also points to the Euro 2024 football tournament, which lifted sports betting in the comparison year.

The scan adds two more factors. Gambling tax rose in steps from 30.5% to 34.2% in 2025, and online operators are now barred from sponsoring sports clubs, matches and athletes. Tax rose again to 37.8% from 1 January 2026. Total tax paid across all sectors was €1.05 billion in 2025, against €1.06 billion in 2024 after inflation adjustment.

Holland Casino and Land-Based Hold Up

Land-based gambling fared better. State-owned Holland Casino grew its GGR by 2.8%, from €664 million to €683 million, with the Ksa noting that slot machines rather than table games drove the increase. Holland Casino's online arm won a five-year licence renewal from 1 October 2026.

Gaming machines in arcades and hospitality venues lost 4.7%. Arcade GGR slipped from €562 million to €539 million, and hospitality machines from €113 million to €104 million. The number of arcades eased from 197 at the end of 2024 to 194 a year later, a far smaller drop than the 23 closures recorded in the previous year. Lottery revenue was 1.8% lower.

Licensed online GGR reached €670 million in the first half of 2026, around €110 million a month, with the Ksa saying the men's World Cup in June may have played a part.

Accounts Up, Player Numbers Flat

Active accounts at licensed online operators rose to 1.48 million in the first half of 2026, from 1.38 million six months earlier. The Ksa estimates that about 490,000 people gamble online in a typical month, and around 820,000 did so at least once in the half-year. That number has not grown significantly.

The regulator says the account rise may reflect the World Cup, but could also mean players are opening several accounts to get around per-account deposit limits. Its figures show about 94% of people who gamble do so only with licensed operators, while channelisation by GGR improved from 54% to 59%.

The Ksa's gap between those two measures suggests people who gamble illegally lose considerably more on average than those who stay with licensed operators. Ipsos data in the report put the share of online players gambling without problems at 65%, level with 2025. The first licence renewals under the five-year Dutch licensing cycle are now under way.