Groothuizen published a blog on 18 February responding to Struycken’s most recent letter to parliament, laying out his latest plans for gambling reform in the market.  

In Groothuizen’s blog, the chairman said it would be naive to assume raising the age limit would completely deter young people from gambling.  

“We already see minors doing so. And for young people under 21, the illegal supply will still be accessible with a few mouse clicks, while they will no longer be able to enter legal parties, which must adhere to a strict duty of care,” he wrote. 

Government proposes increased enforcements for better player protection 

The state secretary last year led a government review of the 2021 Remote Gambling Act. In its findings, published in November, it was suggested that current responsible gambling measures were failing.  

In a letter to parliament dated 14 February Struycken said he was considering increasing enforcement measures for players, including raising the legal gambling age to 21, and giving the regulator more powers to tackle the black market.  

Groothuizen did praise Struycken’s pledge to increase the KSA’s illegal site blocking capabilities and to raise the issue of illegal online gambling at a European level.  

“I felt that the state secretary takes us seriously as a supervisor: in his plans we will (hopefully soon) be given more options to, for example, take illegal websites offline,” Groothhuizen wrote.  

“Amendments to legislation are usually long-term processes, but with sufficient political pressure and social urgency it may be possible quite quickly.” 

KSA working with banks to stop illegal transfers 

The KSA is taking proactive measures to mitigate the black market, the chairman said, including working to undermine the illegal revenue model to discourage illegal supply. 

This involves clamping down on local banks and payments processors to ensure they are not facilitating transfers to and from illegal sites.  

On Struycken’s proposal to put in place industry-wide deposit limits, Groothuizen said this was a “nice and appropriate step in further preventing gambling damage”.  

Industry-wide deposit limits would be challenging to enforce 

But he flagged the administrative challenges that could come with enforcing the limit across the sector, particularly for service providers.  

Player net deposit limits were enforced in October 2024, but these have been rolled out independently across licensed operators. This means that if a player reaches their limit on one site, they can move on to another and their limit still remains in full.  

Data released by the KSA in February showed that these deposit limits had proved effective in the first five months of operation.  

It showed the average loss per player account has plummeted from €117 to €83, while the gross gaming revenue (GGR) of legal operators has dropped by 10% as a result of the deposit limits. 

“We see that the provider limits that we currently use (€300 and €700 per month) are quite effective, ensure that the vast majority of players actually colour neatly within the lines and, moreover, do not yet influence the channeling based on players,” Groothuizen added.