The Netherlands releases its 2023 Gambling Market Scan

The Kansspelautoriteit, or the Dutch Gaming Authority, has published its comprehensive analysis of the gambling industry for 2022. The report, titled 2023 Gambling Market Scan, looks at how gambling has evolved in the country since the re-regulation of the market, and specifically focuses on the last year in terms of performance.

The market has registered a steady year-over-year increase in performance with games of chance amounting to €3.4bn in 2022 in terms of gross gaming result, compared to €2bn in 2021. The regulator argues that the gain in industry momentum has to do with the legalization and opening of more land-based and online options for players to explore.

Players still seem to gravitate towards the land-based market, which accounts for 69% of all gambling activity in the country compared to 31% for the online gambling market in terms of gross gaming result. Sports betting and lotteries have also enjoyed growth in 2022, the Kansspelautoriteit noted.

However, looking back to 2019, online gambling has seemed to syphon off a lot of the revenue that would normally go to land-based casino games – including slot machines and table games, posing new challenges for operators. Of course, many companies have been prescient enough to branch out into the online sector. The Kansspelautoriteit has prohibited cross-reference marketing, and the land-based and online operations of the same brand need to be kept separate.

The regulator has similarly examined the profile of the average Dutch player and compared it to other European players as well. For example, Dutch players tend to play 14% lessthan other Europeans, but people in the country have also been spending incrementally more on gambling – from €158 on average in 2021 to €258 in 2022.

However, this is no reason for concern says the regulator, as most of this handle tracks – before regulating the market the money was probably spent offshore and at illegal gambling websites. In other words, the better rate of channelization has helped bring the revenue into the light as well, and so has the increase in the amount that people end up spending.

The KSA has been busy going after what it considers to be rogue operators which have been targeting Dutch players without a license. In the meantime, many of these companies have strongly protested against the watchdog’s methodology and called it "flawed."

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