TLDR
- KSA head Michel Groothuizen says the Netherlands cannot fight illegal gambling alone and wants EU-wide cooperation
- Half of every euro Dutch gamblers spend goes to illegal operators, costing the country over €500 million in lost tax
- Illegal sites have impersonated Dutch suicide prevention service 113.nl and urged banned gamblers to bypass their exclusion
- Dutch regulators have sued sites including Skyhills and blocked prediction market platform Polymarket
- Lawmakers remain split on an ad ban and raising the gambling age to 21
The head of the Dutch gambling regulator says the Netherlands cannot fight illegal gambling on its own. Michel Groothuizen leads the Kansspelautoriteit, known as the KSA. He wants the European Union to work together on the problem.
Groothuizen made his comments after an annual committee debate on games of chance. He said the scale of illegal gambling is hard to grasp. Half of every euro Dutch gamblers spend goes to illegal operators.
He said the global illegal gambling industry has a turnover bigger than the GDP of any country except the United States and China. That makes it too large for one country to handle. National rules alone are not enough, he said.
Illegal operators do not pay tax. Groothuizen said this has cost the Netherlands more than half a billion euros. He said these sites also target vulnerable people directly.
Some illegal sites have copied the look of 113.nl, a Dutch suicide prevention service. Others have reached out to people signed up for the Cruks self-exclusion system. These sites told banned gamblers to bypass their block and keep playing.
Weak Enforcement and Global Reach
Groothuizen said regulators have handed out fines worth tens of millions of euros. He said these penalties barely touch the profits illegal sites make. Many operators simply ignore the fines.
Some operators change their legal names or move to countries far from Dutch reach, such as Comoros. Dutch regulators have tried other methods instead. They have blocked websites, cut off payment channels, and pressured companies like Meta to stop hosting illegal gambling ads.
Over the past year, the Nederlandse Loterij has sued three illegal gambling sites. The most recent case targeted a site called Skyhills. Regulators also blocked the prediction market platform Polymarket in June.
Groothuizen said Dutch regulators are too small to take on global tech and financial companies alone. He said only European level action can make a real difference.
He said it is naive to think a well-regulated national market and one regulator can solve the problem. He compared the current fight to local police trying to stop global criminal networks.
He said European rules could get pushed aside if lawmakers do not focus on the issue. He said illegal money flows and ad networks already cross borders, and real change needs power at the European level.
Lawmakers Split on Player Protections
The committee debate showed lawmakers agree on fighting illegal operators. But they disagree on how to protect players in the legal market. State Secretary Claudia van Bruggen called the fight against illegal platforms her top priority.
Some lawmakers want a full ban on gambling ads. Others want to raise the minimum gambling age to 21. A few called for rolling back legal gambling entirely.
Other lawmakers urged caution. They warned tighter rules could push more players toward illegal sites, an effect some called the “waterbed effect.”
Van Bruggen rejected an immediate ad ban. She said she would wait for evidence before raising the age limit, wanting proof the change would cut harm without pushing players to illegal sites.
She promised updates on higher penalties for illegal operators. She also said a ban on gambling with borrowed money is coming. Legislation for DNS blocking is planned for 2027.
