Regulated
After more than a decade of slow regulatory changes, the Netherlands Gambling Authority (NGA) is finally able to award licences for remote games of chance as of 1 April 2021. The very first licences were awarded at the end of September 2021, and as of August 2024, a total of thirty remote gambling licences have been awarded.

The NGA is the national gambling regulator and therefore responsible for the issuing of licenses, supervision, and enforcement.

In terms of a brief history lesson, on 19 February 2019, the Senate passed the Remote Gambling Act 2019 (“Wet kansspelen op afstand 2019, RGA”), which amended the Betting and Gaming Act (“Wet op de kansspelen, BGA”) and the Betting and Gaming Tax Act (“Wet op de kansspelbelasting, BGTA”), so as to enable the introduction of the licensing and regulatory regime.

The BGA has always, and continues to, embody a ‘prohibited unless licensed’ approach. It is largely prohibited to offer games of chance without a licence (subject to some minor exceptions). Until the licensing and regulatory regime for remote gambling entered into force in April 2021, the NGA was not able to award licences for remote gambling and all such offerings which were available in the Netherlands were considered unlawful. Games which do not satisfy the definition of a game of chance fall outside the scope of the BGA. The definition of a game of chance has not been amended by the introduction of licensing for remote gambling.

Under the new licensing regime, only a single licence type is available. This single licence type will cover up to four types of gambling, namely:

1. Casino games in which the players play against the licence holder (e.g., blackjack)
2. Casino games in which the players play against one another (e.g., poker)
3. Bets on events occurring during a sporting contest or on the outcome of a sporting contest
4. Bets on the outcome of horse racing and harness racing

Market Size
According to the NGA’s spring 2024 monitoring report (Monitoringsrapportage online kansspelen voorjaar 2024), published at a time when there were 25 remote gambling licences, of which five were dormant, the NGA established that GGR for thecalender year 2023 was EUR1.39bn. By far the largest market segment were casino games played against the house (77%), followed by sports-betting (20%).

The report can be found online (Dutch only).

An overview of the licensed operators can be found on the NGA’s website.

Competitive landscape

• As of August 2024, a total of thirty licences have been awarded, although several of these have been sitting dormant.
• There is no limit on the number of licences which can be awarded.
• For potential applicants, who have previously had an unlicensed presence in the Netherlands, the NGA will take a particularly harsh, likely fatal, view of such offerings. This applies to the broader corporate structure in which the applicant entity sits.

Localisation

• The gambling offer and the entire interface must be available in the Dutch language. There is no restriction on the use of other languages.
• There is no requirement to use a “.nl” extension, but this is commonplace in practice.
• Whilst there are requirements as to the type of payment methods which can be used, particularly that no anonymous methods are permitted, there are no mandatory methods. For example, whilst iDEAL was seen as an indication that an offer was targeted at the Netherlands under the prioritisation criteria, in the context of enforcement prior to the introduction of the remote gambling licensing regime, licence holders are not obliged to used iDEAL.
• Control Database (CDB) must be based in the Netherlands, whilst the rest of the game system must be in the EU/EEA.
• Advertising is mostly restricted to online channels; tv, radio and print advertising is prohibited, event and sport sponsoring is currently under a transitional regime and will be fully prohibited as of 1 July 2025.

Top Key Attractions and Challenges
Attractions

• Unlimited number of licences available
• Growing market

Challenges

• Relatively high tax rate and demanding licence application process