The Dutch treasury raked in almost €1 billion from gambling in 2022, the first full year since the practice was legalised online, official figures show.

The statistics agency CBS published the latest estimate in a report on the government’s overall tax income, which showed gambling was a small fraction of the total revenue of €370 billion.

Income from gambling grew strongly in 2022 due to the rise of gambling websites and the end of pandemic restrictions.

The gaming regulator Kansspelautoriteit estimates that one in 20 people in the Netherlands has used a gambling website since they became legal at the end of 2021, more than 60% of whom had never gambled before.

The government’s total revenues increased by 9% to €415.5 bn, with the largest share coming from higher taxes on corporate profits. Taxes on CO2 emissions and profits from natural gas exports, which benefited from the squeeze on prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also boosted the state coffers.