A local councillor in the Netherlands has proposed raising the minimum gambling age to 24 for all gambling products, going further than any previous government proposal and reviving a debate that has been stalled since the collapse of the last Dutch coalition.
Proposal Goes Beyond National Policy
Meryam Sümer, a CDA councillor representing Enschede, has called for the minimum gambling age to be raised from 18 to 24 across all product categories. Her proposal exceeds the national-level measure floated by former state secretary for legal protection Teun Struycken, who proposed raising the minimum age for online slots only — from 18 to 21.
Struycken’s proposal was itself part of a broader planned overhaul of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA), which included tighter advertising restrictions, expanded duty-of-care obligations for operators, and mandatory financial assessments for players seeking to increase deposit limits. That legislative process was interrupted when the previous coalition collapsed in June 2025 and snap elections produced a new government. Struycken has since left the role.
The new state secretary for legal protection, Claudia van Bruggen of D66, was installed on 23 February 2026. She now oversees the KOA reform mandate and reports to justice minister David van Weel. Van Bruggen has not yet indicated her position on the minimum age question, and the timeline for a draft bill remains unclear.
Youth Debt Crisis Drives the Call
Sümer, who works in welfare, grounded her proposal in Enschede’s debt statistics. According to municipal data she cited, one in five young people in the city is currently in debt. In 2025, the municipality recorded 12,145 reports of individuals experiencing problematic debt; 960 of those cases involved people at risk of eviction or disconnection from essential utilities. The city actively engaged around 4,000 residents facing serious financial difficulties — roughly a third of all cases, well above the national average engagement rate of approximately 20%.
Beyond the age threshold, Sümer called for stricter restrictions on gambling advertising and buy-now-pay-later schemes, arguing that easy credit access and pervasive gambling promotions on social media and within mobile games contribute directly to the financial difficulties facing Dutch youth.
“Many youngsters do not yet have the financial awareness to manage multiple subscriptions, instalment purchases and gambling offers appearing on social media and within mobile games,” Sümer said, warning that these factors combine to cause “serious problems” in the community.
Black Market Concern Runs Through the Debate
The proposal faces a structural objection that has followed every Dutch age-limit discussion: raising the minimum age risks accelerating movement to unlicensed platforms. The KSA has been explicit on this point. The regulator’s chairman raised the concern in a blog post in February 2025, warning that younger players who could no longer access regulated sites would face an illegal market accessible with a few clicks, beyond the reach of any duty-of-care requirements.
That concern is grounded in deteriorating channelisation data. While 91% of Dutch players still use licensed operators, the KSA’s revenue analysis shows that only around 50% of total gambling funds now flow through the regulated market — a figure that was previously estimated above 80%. The drop reflects the combined effect of successive tax increases and tightening compliance requirements on licensed operators, which have made the regulated market less competitive against offshore alternatives.
During a parliamentary debate in March 2025, Struycken acknowledged the black market risk and suggested a phased approach to any age increase, allowing a transition period that would prevent current legal players from being pushed offshore. Christian Union leader Mirjam Bikker raised a separate concern: applying different age thresholds to individual product categories such as slots would be difficult to enforce, and she proposed a blanket 21 limit across all products instead.
Netherlands Would Become an Outlier in Europe
A minimum gambling age of 24 would position the Netherlands at the far end of the European spectrum. Belgium raised its minimum age from 18 to 21 for all gambling except lottery in 2024. Greece and Lithuania have also moved to 21. Malta sets a 25-year minimum for land-based casino entry for its own citizens, as does Georgia, but neither applies that threshold to online gambling across all product categories.
The existing Dutch regulatory framework already includes age-linked deposit limits. The KSA caps deposits at €300 per month for players between 18 and 24, and €700 for those aged 25 and over. Players must contact their operator directly to request a higher limit. Online advertising is already restricted to targeting consumers aged 24 and above, and most untargeted gambling advertising has been banned since July 2023.
The broader KOA reform — including the age question — now sits with Van Bruggen. Her party, D66, holds the reform brief within a coalition that also includes CDA, whose ranks produced Sümer’s proposal. Whether the local call feeds into the national legislative process will depend on how Van Bruggen frames the overhaul when a draft bill is eventually tabled. No date has been confirmed for that.
Source: Focus Gaming News, iGaming Business
