The Netherlands is planning to ban all online gambling advertising and bonuses, Justice and Security State Secretary Claudia van Bruggen announced on 12 June. The measures are aimed at reversing a rise in gambling participation and addiction rates that have accumulated since the country’s regulated online market opened on 1 October 2021.
What the Proposals Cover
The centrepiece of the plan is a near-total prohibition on online gambling advertising. Licensed operators would be barred from running any marketing campaigns for their products, with only very limited exceptions under consideration. All bonus mechanics are also included — free bets for new account holders and loyalty rewards for existing customers would no longer be permitted.
Van Bruggen is also proposing to raise the minimum age for high-risk online gambling from 18 to 21. A central monitoring system would enforce an overarching deposit limit across all licensed platforms simultaneously, closing the loophole that allows players to circumvent per-operator caps by distributing bets across multiple sites.
Players seeking to raise their deposit limits would be required to demonstrate financial capacity. The assessment would examine whether the applicant is under guardianship or third-party financial oversight, and whether they have a history of payment arrears. The government stopped short of describing this as a formal credit check.
The proposals also include broader enforcement powers against illegal operators, which could extend to hosting companies and payment providers facilitating access to unlicensed sites.
“I find it particularly concerning that more and more people, and especially young people, have started gambling online and are getting into trouble as a result. It is high time to reverse this trend. With the proposed measures, I am taking an important step to better protect people against the negative effects of gambling, such as addiction and debt. Special attention is being paid to young people and young adults because they are particularly vulnerable to the risks of gambling.”
— Claudia van Bruggen, State Secretary for Justice and Security
Regulatory History Behind the Move
The Dutch market opened to private operators in October 2021 under the Remote Gambling Act. Regulators introduced a series of tightening measures in the years that followed. A ban on the use of role models — celebrities, athletes, and influencers — in gambling advertising came into effect alongside a broader prohibition on untargeted advertising across television, radio, print, public spaces, and social media in July 2023. Sponsorship of sports clubs, including shirt deals in the Eredivisie, was fully prohibited from 1 July 2025.
Despite those restrictions, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) concluded that young people continued to encounter substantial amounts of gambling advertising, including through targeted online and social media channels that had not been captured by earlier rules. The KSA has also identified structural flaws in the market’s risk assessment framework, and reported that the regulated market had stagnated over the past six months while the unlicensed segment expanded.
The Netherlands already operates deposit limits by age group — €150 per month for players aged 18 to 23 and €350 for those 24 and over, with affordability checks triggered at €300 and €700 respectively. Van Bruggen’s proposals would build a unified cross-platform ceiling on top of that existing structure.
Legislative Timeline and Industry Implications
Van Bruggen is developing the measures into formal legislation. The bill will sit alongside a longer-term Multi-Year Agenda for Protection against Gambling Damage covering public awareness, early intervention, and the normalisation of gambling in Dutch society. The government is also reviewing whether to cap the total number of licences available in the market.
The proposals arrive at a difficult moment for licensed operators. The KSA’s own data shows channelisation falling below 50% in the first half of 2025 — meaning the majority of Dutch gambling spend was already flowing to unlicensed sites. An advertising ban that further reduces brand visibility for licensed operators could accelerate that shift, an argument several European markets have raised in response to comparable restrictions. The KSA warned as recently as February 2026 about the societal normalisation of gambling, signalling that regulatory pressure was building ahead of today’s announcement.
The Dutch move follows the direction of several other European markets. Italy implemented a blanket gambling advertising ban in 2019 under the Dignity Decree. Belgium raised the minimum gambling age to 21 in September 2024. The UK banned mixed-product promotions and capped wagering requirements at ten times the bonus amount from January 2026. The Netherlands is now moving toward one of the most restrictive advertising frameworks in Europe’s licensed markets.
Van Bruggen’s bill has yet to be presented for parliamentary deliberation. The timeline for implementation has not been confirmed.
Source: Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security
