--- title: "Netherlands — Outlook: What is coming? | advennt.io" canonical: https://advennt.io/jurisdictions/netherlands/outlook/ source_html: /jurisdictions/nl/outlook/index.html description: "Netherlands — Outlook: What is coming?" generated_at: 2026-11-07T14:55:18Z content_sha256: 89438385a48294007eff84e542c5a69fc0c52d0027ef6aae44237401051eaced generator: "fe-fleet/md-twin@1.0" --- # Netherlands — Outlook: What is coming? | advennt.io [Jurisdictions](/jurisdictions/) › [Netherlands](/jurisdictions/netherlands/) › Outlook # Netherlands Gambling — Outlook: What is coming? Key section parameters Jurisdiction Netherlands (NL) Regulator KSA Favourability Mixed Confidence Confirmed Review status Expert approved · 4 post-review updates · Not reviewed · In expert review scope Last collected 4 Nov 2026 Summary answer In February 2025 the State Secretary for Legal Protection published a new “policy vision” for the gambling market, replacing the one which has been in place for more than a decade, and which underpinned the introduction of the remote gambling regime. The now current policy vision is characterised by… 18 Oct 2026 Read update The Dutch cabinet commenced a further exploration of privatisation options for state lottery operator Nederlandse Loterij via a Kamerbrief dated 13 October 2026, building on a 2023 PwC options study. An external adviser is to assess feasibility and public-interest safeguards, with an interim parliamentary update due in the first quarter of 2027 and full findings expected by the second half of 2027. Any eventual privatisation decision would require separate dedicated legislation and a sale process expected to take several years beyond that. This is the first concrete government action on the lottery's ownership structure since the 2023 study, though it remains an early-stage exploratory process with no legislative commitment yet made. 19 Sep 2026 Read update The standing reform instrument for this cycle is the Beleidsregels vergunningverlening kansspelen op afstand 2026, which entered into force on 1 January 2026 and reshapes the conditions attached to licence renewal. The key near-term milestone is the 1 October 2026 expiry of the first five-year remote licences, granted in September 2021, which will be the first practical test of the new renewal-stage requirements — the exit plan, five-year compliance-history review, CDB re-integration testing, and possible Wwft risk analysis. As a FRAGILE regulator circular rather than primary legislation, the instrument remains subject to further KSA adjustment, but its near-term enforcement window is fixed and imminent, justifying continued close monitoring through the October 2026 deadline. 9 Sep 2026 Read update The Netherlands' standing reform horizon this cycle comprises three concurrent threads: the 2026 KOA licence-renewal cycle under the tightened Beleidsregels vergunningverlening kansspelen op afstand 2026 (effective 1 January 2026); KSA's five-priority 2026 Supervisory Agenda covering illegal gambling, under-24 protection, duty of care, advertising restrictions and AML compliance; and KSA's stated plan to publish 2026 guidance on operator use of AI and monitoring tools, which has not yet been issued and whose scope remains unknown. Together these place the reform horizon in an active-change state, though all three threads rest on tier-three sourcing without independent retrieval of the underlying KSA publications this cycle. 2 Sep 2026 Read update The Netherlands' online gambling advertising rules remain the most active reform thread this cycle. Dutch trade body VNLOK wrote to the Tweede Kamer urging a risk-based approach rather than a total online gambling advertising ban, citing KSA-sourced estimates that illegal-market spend now matches the licensed market. The letter arrived ahead of a House of Representatives debate on the government's proposed near-total online gambling advertising ban, scheduled for 3 September 2026. Both the lobbying position and the scheduled debate carry Uncertain confidence in this cycle's assessment: the lobbying letter rests on a single T2 source that returned an HTTP 403 block on independent verification, and the debate falls just outside the collection window, with its outcome unconfirmed by any source. No reform-stage transition, from none through consultation, draft, or enactment, has yet occurred; the debate's result is the trigger that would move this track forward, and confirmation from a Tweede Kamer record or KSA statement would allow these claims to be upgraded toward Probable or Confirmed. ## Full section analysis In February 2025 the State Secretary for Legal Protection published a new “policy vision” for the gambling market, replacing the one which has been in place for more than a decade, and which underpinned the introduction of the remote gambling regime. The now current policy vision is characterised by shifting focus from the protection of consumers to the protecting citizens from the negative consequences which can be associated with gambling. It is in this context that “channelisation” of demand has been done away with as an objective, and has been reduced to merely being a means of measuring market developments. The State Secretary has also clearly indicated that there will be a range of new restrictions for the remote gambling market, although these will require changes to secondary regulations and therefore this will take time. Whilst ideas for further restrictions were first floated in February 2025, at the time of writing there have been no concrete (draft) legislative amendments, only further discussions. More information is expected in the first half of 2027 when a consultation process will open. Other than this, no timelines are known, but given that legislative amendments will be required it is reasonable to assume that statutory changes will not enter into force before 2029. Expected measures include: - Single overarching player limits, with an affordability check for players wishing to exceed the default threshold. Necessary technical solution to be developed and managed by the NGA. - Ban on advertising for remote games of chance, including bonuses. Only very narrow exceptions will be permitted, such as on the operator’s own website or in search engine results. Role of affiliates still to be determined. - Banning the ability of players to gamble with credit cards and “borrowed money”. - Amending provisions around CRUKS registrations. For example, the minimum registration period in the register will increase from six to twelve months, a shift away from automatic deregistration upon expiry of period of registration, and no longer will there be a maximum registration period as such - the 99 year term will become indefinite. - Other measures will also be detailed, such as that enabling the NGA to suspend an operator’s licence without this being part of an overall process to ultimately withdraw the licence, which is currently the case. Attention will also focus on tackling the illegal market. In February 2025 the idea to increase the minimum age of participation for the riskiest games of chance from 18 to 21 years old was also amongst those floated. This has now been shelved, at least for the time being, so not to push younger players into the illegal market. However, it could return to the table if measures for countering the illegal market are more effective than at present. Potentially capping the number of available licences has also arisen in parliamentary discourse. There has not been a debate on a number as such, at this stage. The current State Secretary has initiated a study into the feasibility of introducing a limit, after which proposals for legislative amendments may be put forward. Should such proposals eventually be made they will follow those for the points mentioned above. Skill games: Games which do not satisfy the definition of a game of chance remain outside the scope of the BGA; the material scope of the legislation has not changed. Within recent years the NGA has voiced its concerns between the blurring of lines between (video) games and gambling. One reflection of this is the fact that remote gambling operators cannot offer services other than the licensed offer on their remote gambling interface (app/website). In April 2018 the NGA published a study into the loot box mechanisms found within ten popular games titles and concluded that four of these mechanisms constituted games of chance. As these were not licensed in accordance with the BGA they were deemed to be illegal. Whilst some of the publishers bowed to the NGA’s pressure, Electronic Arts resisted the NGA’s finding that “FUT Packs” in its popular FIFA game were illegal games of chance. Whilst the NGA’s stance prevailed before the court of first instance, the Council of State (Raad van State) held, in March 2022, that the NGA had erred in applying the definition of a game of chance to the FUT Packs in FIFA. In order to reach the conclusion that the Packs were games of chance the NGA had isolated Packs from the broader game context, which was considered to be a skill game (into which the Packs added an element of chance). The Council of State held that the NGA could not take one element of the overall game and consider it in isolation from the broader game context, unless the NGA could demonstrate that this actually occurred in practice, which the NGA had not done. Following Electronic Art’s success before the Council of State the NGA has been quiet on this issue. Unsurprisingly though, this has resulted in parliamentary discourse, whereby it has been concluded that gambling legislation is not the optimal route to take for tackling loot boxes. Within this context the Netherlands is due to champion the inclusion of loot boxes as an unfair commercial practice within EU consumer protection legislation. Should this succeed, then the impact will clearly be felt beyond the Netherlands. Note that the Council of State’s decision does not preclude the possibility that other loot boxes do constitute games of chance, depending upon the specifics of the mechanism and how they are offered in the context of the games in which they are found.