Netherlands iGaming in 2026: KSA Ad Ban, Deposit Limits and Tax

As of September 2026 the Dutch online market runs under rules that arrived in four waves. Untargeted advertising has been banned since 1 July 2023. Sports sponsorship by gambling brands ended on 1 July 2025, the last step of a phased ban. Default net deposit limits of EUR 700 a month (EUR 300 for players under 24) have applied since 1 October 2024. And the gaming tax on gross gaming revenue climbed from 30.5% to 34.2% on 1 January 2025 and to 37.8% on 1 January 2026. Five years after the Remote Gambling Act (Koa) opened the market on 1 October 2021, the Netherlands has gone from Europe's most liberal launch to one of its tightest regimes, and the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) now spends as much time measuring the players it lost to unlicensed sites as policing the ones it licenses.

Key facts

• 1 July 2023: the Decree on Untargeted Advertising for Remote Gambling took effect, ending gambling ads on TV, radio, outdoor and print; online ads remained legal only with targeting that keeps at least 95% of the audience over 24.
• 1 July 2024 and 1 July 2025: sponsorship of events and TV programmes ended first, sports sponsorship (shirts, boards, clubs, competitions) a year later.
• 1 October 2024: net deposit limits of EUR 700 a month, EUR 300 for 18 to 24 year olds, became the default; a player who wants more must pass a financial capacity check.
• 1 January 2025 and 1 January 2026: kansspelbelasting rose from 30.5% to 34.2% and then to 37.8% of GGR, the highest gaming tax rate in Western Europe.
• 2025: the KSA reported that roughly 9 in 10 Dutch players stay with licensed sites, but only about half of the money staked does; the ministry has proposed a minimum age of 21 for online slots and a cross-operator deposit limit (figures from KSA monitoring reports, approximate).

The advertising regime, step by step

The Koa allowed a broad advertising window when the market opened in October 2021. It lasted eight months. Dutch TV filled up with gambling spots fronted by footballers and presenters, complaints reached parliament, and from 30 June 2022 the use of role models (athletes, influencers, celebrities) in gambling advertising was prohibited. That was the first restriction; the second was far bigger.

The Decree on Untargeted Advertising (Besluit ongerichte reclame kansspelen op afstand) took effect on 1 July 2023. It removed every channel where the operator can't control who sees the ad: television, radio, billboards, print, and public spaces. Online advertising survived under three conditions. The ad must not be aimed at minors, young adults under 24 or people who've excluded themselves; users must be able to opt out; and the operator has to take measures so that at least 95% of the reached audience is 24 or older. In practice that means logged-in, age-verified environments and first-party audiences, not open programmatic.

Sponsorship was phased out over two years. From 1 July 2024 operators could no longer sponsor events, festivals or TV programmes. From 1 July 2025 sports sponsorship ended: no shirt deals, no LED boards, no club, league or athlete partnerships. The Eredivisie and the KNVB lost their betting sponsors by the deadline, and the brands that had built awareness on football (TOTO, Holland Casino, BetCity, Unibet) moved their budgets to CRM, affiliate and targeted digital. Together with the mandatory duty-of-care checks, that shift is a large part of why Dutch acquisition costs sit where they do; the player acquisition cost surge brief puts the wider European numbers in context.

One rule set that predates all of this still bites: bonuses can't be aimed at 18 to 24 year olds, and every promotional message has to carry the "Wat doet gokken met jou?" responsible-play tagline. Ad compliance in the Netherlands isn't a media plan question any more, it's a data question: can you prove who saw the ad and who didn't.

Deposit limits and the duty of care

The Koa already required every player to set three limits at registration: a deposit limit per period, a maximum account balance and a maximum session length. Lowering a limit takes effect at once; raising one only after a waiting period. What changed on 1 October 2024 is that the deposit limit stopped being a free choice.

Under the ministerial regulation in force since that date, a player who sets a net deposit limit above EUR 700 a month (EUR 300 for players aged 18 to 24) triggers a mandatory step: the operator has to make personal contact and verify that the player can afford it, using income or wealth evidence, before the higher limit is activated. The KSA's responsible-play policy rule adds an earlier intervention point when monthly net deposits pass a lower threshold (EUR 350, or EUR 150 for young adults, according to the policy rule; check the current version). The effect on the legal market was immediate. The KSA's monitoring showed a drop in GGR from high-depositing players in Q4 2024 and the first half of 2025, and operators reported that a share of those players didn't lower their spend; they moved it to sites with no limits at all.

The duty of care (zorgplicht) in article 4a of the Wet op de kansspelen sits above all of this. Operators have to monitor play for signs of problem gambling, intervene, document what they did, and, where needed, push a player towards self-exclusion in CRUKS. The KSA's inspections since 2024 have focused on whether that monitoring is real: how quickly interventions happen, whether they're personal rather than automated pop-ups, and whether the operator can show the reasoning. The case for explainable models in this workflow is made in the explainable AI in compliance explainer.

Tax: from 30.5% to 37.8% in two years

The 2025 Tax Plan raised kansspelbelasting in two steps: 30.5% to 34.2% on 1 January 2025 and to 37.8% on 1 January 2026. The tax applies to gross gaming revenue, stakes minus winnings paid out, so bonuses and free bets are taxed as if they were cash. The ministry's own impact note acknowledged that the higher rate would push some play to unlicensed sites, and the KSA said as much in its 2025 reports.

For a Dutch operator the arithmetic is unforgiving. Take EUR 100 of GGR. Tax takes EUR 37.80. Platform and content fees, payment costs, the KSA levy and the addiction-prevention contribution take another EUR 15 to 25 depending on scale. Marketing under the targeting rules, plus compliance headcount, has to fit in what's left. The contribution margin that was thin at 30.5% is close to zero for a sub-scale brand at 37.8%, which is why 2025 and 2026 saw licence handbacks and consolidation rather than new entrants. How the base you're taxed on matters as much as the rate is the subject of the gaming tax base vs rate comparison; the Netherlands taxes a wide base at a high rate, the worst combination for margins.

Enforcement: fines the KSA has actually issued

The KSA can impose administrative fines of up to EUR 900,000 or, if higher, 10% of turnover, and it uses the top end against unlicensed operators. The decisions that shaped the market:

• 2023: Gammix Limited was fined EUR 19.7 million for offering unlicensed gambling to Dutch players, the largest KSA fine to date and a signal that unlicensed fines are now calculated from turnover.
• 2023: Betent (BetCity) and LiveScore Bet each received EUR 400,000 fines for advertising that reached young adults under 24.
• 2024: TOTO Online was fined EUR 400,000 on the same ground.
• 2024 onwards: the KSA's revised sanction policy sets a higher floor for unlicensed offering, and inspections of licensed operators moved from advertising to duty of care: deposit-limit handling, intervention speed and record keeping.

Two lessons carry over from the first years of enforcement. Marketing cases are proven with data, and the KSA asks for the targeting evidence, not the media plan. And "compliant on paper" workarounds, such as sports-adjacent lifestyle sponsorship or influencer content, have drawn attention rather than avoided it. The KSA publishes every sanction decision on its sanctiebesluiten page, which is the place to check the figures above before citing them.

What a platform has to support

A Koa licence is granted to the operator, but most of the obligations are executed by the platform. Anything shortlisted for a Dutch launch has to do the following out of the box:

• CRUKS check at registration and at every login, using the citizen service number (BSN), with immediate blocking of excluded players. Self-exclusion in CRUKS runs for at least six months and can be imposed involuntarily.
• The three registration limits (deposit, balance, session), the EUR 700 / EUR 300 defaults, a financial capacity workflow for higher limits, immediate lowering and delayed raising.
• Cooling-off and time-out tools, session-time reminders, a visible play-history and loss overview, and a link to the Loket Kansspel help service.
• Control database reporting: the Koa requires operators to keep a data vault (controledatabank) the KSA can read, with transaction, player and intervention records in the prescribed format.
• Ad and bonus controls that can block under-24 targeting and log audience proof.

In the iGamingHub catalog, 19 platform providers list the Netherlands among supported licences. Three worth a look for a Dutch RFP: GR8 Tech, a turnkey platform on a hybrid model that lists the Netherlands alongside Denmark, Belgium and Portugal, all limit-heavy markets; Digitain, whose card pairs the Netherlands with MGA, UKGC and Romanian ONJN licences and quotes a 10 to 24 week launch; and Altenar, a sportsbook-led turnkey on a fixed fee that lists the Netherlands, Denmark and Ontario. NuxGame carries both the Netherlands and a KSA tag on its card with a 3 to 8 week launch window, though its stated markets are LatAm, Asia and Africa rather than Europe. iGamingHub tracks licence lists as vendors report them; ask each vendor for a live Dutch reference before you believe the checkbox. For the vendor-agnostic list of tools, the responsible gambling tools guide covers limits, self-exclusion and intervention features in more depth, and the responsible gambling hub explains the terms.

Key numbers

Milestones ahead

The next changes are legislative, not regulatory. In February 2025 the State Secretary for Legal Protection sent parliament a policy letter following the statutory evaluation of the Koa. It proposed a minimum age of 21 for high-risk online games such as slots, a deposit limit that applies across all operators rather than per account, tighter bonus rules and more powers for the KSA. A draft bill was announced for consultation; as of September 2026 those changes haven't reached the statute book, and the timeline depends on the parliamentary calendar. Operators should assume the cross-operator limit arrives in some form, because it's the only proposal that closes the gap the per-operator limit left open.

On tax, 37.8% is the final scheduled step. There's no further increase on the books, but there's no relief either, and the KSA's channelisation figures are the number to watch: if money channelisation stays near 50%, the political case for revisiting the rate gets stronger, not weaker.

On advertising, the remaining question is whether targeted online advertising survives. The evaluation floated a full online ad ban; nothing has been decided. Until it is, the 95% rule and the ban on role models define the ceiling, and the sports sponsorship ban of 1 July 2025 has now had a full season to settle.

Primary sources

• Kansspelautoriteit, the Dutch regulator; English overview at The Netherlands Gambling Authority, sanction decisions at sanctiebesluiten and news at nieuws.
• Rijksoverheid: kansspelen, the Ministry of Justice and Security's policy page, including the Koa evaluation and the February 2025 policy letter.
• Wet op de kansspelen, the consolidated Betting and Gaming Act, including the Koa amendments and article 4a on the duty of care.
• CRUKS, the central exclusion register.
• Belastingdienst: kansspelbelasting, current gaming tax rates.