Netherlands KSA Advertising Ban: What’s Allowed and What’s Not in 2026

The Regulatory Framework: Where the Advertising Ban Comes From

The Netherlands’ advertising restrictions for online gambling are grounded in the Besluit Kansspelen op Afstand (the Remote Gambling Decree, commonly cited as the Dutch Gambling Decree), which forms the subordinate legislation underpinning the Wet Kansspelen op Afstand (KOA Act) that opened the regulated online market in October 2021. The advertising provisions were not part of the original licensing launch. They were introduced through a government amendment driven by addiction-prevention concerns and formally entered into force in July 2023, following a political commitment made in 2022 by the then-minister for legal protection, Franc Weerwind.

The rationale stated explicitly at the time of the amendment was that advertising serves a channelisation function in directing players toward licensed operators, but that function must be subordinated to the protection of vulnerable groups, particularly young adults aged 18 to 23. Licensees operating in the Netherlands should treat this hierarchy as the interpretive lens for every advertising decision they make.

Untargeted Advertising: The Core Prohibition

The central prohibition introduced in July 2023 bans untargeted gambling advertising that may reach minors or vulnerable groups. Under Dutch law and the relevant code provisions of the Gambling Decree, “untargeted” means any advertising placement that does not actively filter or restrict exposure based on age and behavioural vulnerability indicators. The prohibition is not limited to advertising that demonstrably reaches prohibited audiences; it covers advertising that may reach those audiences, placing the compliance burden on the licensee at the point of placement rather than at the point of measured outcome.

This is an important operational distinction. A licensee cannot argue post-hoc that its campaign happened not to reach underage users if the placement mechanism lacked adequate targeting controls at the outset. The Gambling Decree mandates that licensees employ the best available measures to prevent targeting individuals aged 18 to 23, and separately requires them to demonstrate that at least 95% of the audience for any given advertisement is aged 24 or older.

“Online advertising remains permitted but must target audiences comprising at least 95% aged 24 or older.” (Dutch Gambling Decree advertising provisions, as reported in KSA H2 2025 semi-annual market data.)

The 95% Aged 24+ Threshold: Verification and Documentation

The 95% audience-composition requirement is the operational heartbeat of the online advertising regime. Every permitted online gambling advertisement must be configured and documented such that at least 95 in every 100 individuals reached are aged 24 or older. This threshold applies at the campaign level and, in practice, at the individual ad-set or placement level when platforms allow that granularity of configuration.

Licensees must maintain records demonstrating compliance. The appropriate documentation standard includes campaign configuration screenshots showing minimum age settings, audience definition parameters, and any exclusion lists applied. Where platforms provide post-campaign reach reports broken down by age, those reports should be retained and reviewed against the 95% threshold. Where platforms do not provide sufficient granularity, that limitation itself becomes a compliance risk that the licensee must address through alternative means or by avoiding the platform.

Nielsen monitoring of the Dutch market documented a 42% drop in paid online gambling advertisements between the first and second half of 2025, falling from 129,000 to 75,000 monthly ads, according to data reported in the KSA’s H2 2025 semi-annual report. This decline reflects licensees withdrawing from placements where they cannot confidently demonstrate the 95% threshold rather than any reduction in underlying marketing appetite. In practice, operators should treat the inability to demonstrate the threshold as equivalent to a prohibition on using that channel.

Offline Channels: Complete Prohibition, No Carve-Outs

Television, radio, print, and outdoor advertising for online gambling are prohibited without exception under the Dutch Gambling Decree’s advertising provisions. The prohibition applies to all licensed online operators, and there are no current carve-outs for brand-sponsorship announcements, public interest messaging, or licensed land-based venue communications that cross into online product territory.

The January 2026 discussions within the Netherlands’ minority government about extending the ban to a total prohibition on gambling advertising of all kinds, including online channels, did not produce new legislation as of the time of writing, according to reporting by iGamingBusiness (April 2026). However, the political direction is clearly toward tighter restriction rather than liberalisation. Compliance officers should monitor legislative developments closely, as further tightening remains a live policy risk.

Sponsorship Restrictions: Phase-In and Current Status

Sponsorship restrictions were phased in across 2024 and 2025 under the Dutch Gambling Decree. The phased implementation gave rights-holders and licensees time to wind down existing commercial arrangements, but the phase-in period is now complete. As of the start of 2026, licensees should treat the sponsorship restrictions as fully operative.

The specific categories of sponsorship prohibited post-phase-in cover arrangements where gambling brand identity is prominently displayed or associated with sports clubs, sports events, or broadcast programming in ways that reach general audiences including those under 24. The Gambling Decree’s relevant code provisions govern which arrangements fall within scope. Operators should consult qualified Dutch legal counsel to assess whether any existing or prospective sponsorship arrangement falls within or outside the prohibition, particularly for arrangements that provide brand visibility in contexts where audience composition cannot be controlled to the 95% standard.

There are no blanket carve-outs for particular sports categories. The KSA has not publicly confirmed conditional approvals for specific sponsorship types as of the period covered by the 2025 Annual Report. Any arrangement presented as compliant should be supported by a formal legal opinion addressing the specific facts of that arrangement against the relevant Decree provisions.

Affiliate and Referral Program Compliance

The 95% audience-composition requirement and the untargeted advertising prohibition apply to advertising placed by or on behalf of a licensee, including placements made through affiliate networks and referral programs. A licensee cannot transfer its compliance obligation to an affiliate partner by contract alone. The KSA’s enforcement posture, consistent with the broader regulatory logic of the Gambling Decree, treats the licensee as ultimately responsible for advertising placed in its name or for its benefit.

In practice, licensees should require affiliate partners to provide documentation of audience-targeting configurations for every placement that references the licensee’s brand or directs traffic to the licensee’s platform. Affiliate agreements should include explicit representations and warranties regarding the 95% threshold, audit rights enabling the licensee to review placement data, and termination provisions triggered by verified non-compliance. Where an affiliate cannot demonstrate compliance with the threshold for a given placement, the licensee should instruct suspension of that placement rather than rely on contractual indemnities as a compliance defence.

Licensees should also assess whether any affiliate’s use of broad, interest-based, or behavioural targeting on social platforms is consistent with the “best available measures” standard in the Gambling Decree. The same platform-specific limitations that affect direct campaigns affect affiliate placements, and the licensee’s exposure is identical in both cases.

Platform-Specific Enforcement Gaps: Meta, Google, and X

A May 2026 research study examining Meta’s compliance with Dutch age-targeting rules for gambling advertisements found that Meta was not fully compliant with the requirements of the Dutch Gambling Decree, as reported by iGamingBusiness. The study identified three structural contributors to non-compliance: automated ad optimisation tools, specifically Meta’s Advantage+ feature, which defaults to a minimum age of 18 and does not automatically prompt advertisers to set the Dutch-required minimum of 24; human error and inconsistent pre-publication compliance checks among operators; and platform data constraints that make independent verification difficult.

“Meta’s age-range reporting uses broad brackets (such as 18-24), which do not align precisely with Dutch law that restricts targeting specifically to 18-23-year-olds.” (Research findings on Meta compliance with Dutch Gambling Decree advertising provisions, as reported by iGamingBusiness, May 2026.)

The misalignment between Meta’s reporting brackets and Dutch law creates a structural verification problem. A licensee whose campaign reports show a 18-24 age bracket cannot extract from that data whether the 18-23 sub-cohort was reached, because Meta’s system does not disaggregate at single-year increments. The study recommended that platforms provide reach data by single-year age increments and apply country-specific legal age minimums by default. Until those changes are implemented at the platform level, the compliance burden falls entirely on the licensee to configure campaigns conservatively, document configurations, and treat any demographic uncertainty as a prohibited exposure.

Licensed operators on X (formerly Twitter) have effectively withdrawn from the platform. The KSA’s H2 2025 data showed almost no social media presence by licensed operators on X, directly attributable to the platform’s limitations on minimum age targeting that prevent licensees from meeting the 95% threshold. This is the correct operational response where a platform cannot support compliant targeting. Google has been engaged by the KSA’s Project Disconnect initiative to suppress paid search advertising by illegal operators, but the 95% requirement also constrains how licensed operators may use paid search on Google in contexts where audience composition cannot be verified.

The KSA and Dutch regulators are also examining whether the Digital Services Act (DSA) provides additional enforcement levers against platforms that fail to enable compliance, with an investigation reportedly under way into the applicability of the Decree’s prohibitions to adverts placed by offline licensees on social media. Licensees should monitor the outcome of that investigation as it may affect the scope of obligations for operators holding offline licences who advertise online.

Enforcement Consequences: Financial Penalties and Procedure

The KSA’s enforcement activity in 2025 demonstrates that advertising violations are not treated in isolation; they form part of broader dossier-style investigations into operator conduct. The KSA fined five licensed operators a combined €8.6 million in 2025, according to the KSA 2025 Annual Report, with the majority of those fines attributable to failures in duty-of-care obligations arising from investigations into cases of extreme player losses. Advertising non-compliance creates a pathway into that enforcement process.

For unlicensed operators, the KSA imposed four fines totalling €31.2 million during the same period. The largest single action was a record penalty of approximately €25 million imposed on Novatech for illegal operations via Qbet.com and 55Bet.com, which actively targeted Dutch customers without geo-blocking, age verification, or adequate AML controls, as reported by iGamingBusiness (April 2026). The KSA publicly noted that Dutch law caps fines at 10% of an operator’s global turnover, and that without this statutory cap the Novatech penalty would have exceeded €100 million. The KSA is in discussions with the Justice Ministry to amend this limitation.

For licensed operators, the practical enforcement risk from advertising violations encompasses formal investigation, notice procedures, and fines calculated against the 10% of global GGR cap. The KSA has indicated no hesitation in using the full extent of available sanctions, and the regulator’s publicly stated frustration with the statutory cap signals an intent to seek higher penalty authority through legislative change. Licensees should not treat the current cap as a ceiling that limits their financial exposure to a manageable figure; the reputational and licence-integrity consequences of a public enforcement action carry costs well beyond any monetary fine.

Channelisation Context: Why the Advertising Rules Carry Market-Level Stakes

The KSA’s 2025 Annual Report documents channelisation falling from 51% at the end of 2024 to 49% in the first half of 2025, meaning the illegal online market now accounts for a larger share of gross gaming revenue than the licensed sector by operator GGR. The KSA estimated the illegal online market at approximately €617 million in H1 2025, slightly ahead of the €602 million generated by licensed operators in the same period.

The advertising restrictions are a contributing factor to this dynamic. Licensees are constrained in their ability to reach and convert potential players through advertising while unlicensed operators face no equivalent restrictions. Channelisation based on player activity remained high at approximately 94% during 2025, meaning most registered players hold accounts with licensed operators, but those players are increasingly spending with unlicensed platforms that impose no deposit limits and carry no advertising constraints. The practical consequence is that strict advertising compliance, however legally necessary, currently disadvantages licensed operators in the competition for active player spend against operators who ignore the rules entirely.

The KSA’s response through Project Disconnect, targeting the infrastructure of unlicensed operators including paid search suppression and domain takedowns, is designed to reduce the competitive advantage enjoyed by the illegal market. Early results show near-elimination of paid search advertising for illegal sites on Google since August 2025 and the takedown of illegal .nl domains via registry SIDN, according to the KSA 2025 Annual Report. Licensees should view these enforcement efforts as complementary to their own compliance investment and engage constructively with KSA initiatives that level the competitive landscape rather than lobbying for relaxation of advertising rules in isolation.

The political and regulatory environment in the Netherlands in 2026 is one of heightened scrutiny, with the minority government having discussed a total advertising ban and the KSA actively seeking stronger enforcement tools. Compliance officers should frame advertising compliance not merely as legal obligation but as a market-integrity investment, recognising that the legitimacy of the licensed market depends on demonstrating that regulated operators behave materially differently from their unlicensed competitors.

Key Resources

KSA 2025 Annual Report (Jaarverslag Kansspelautoriteit 2025), published April 2026. Available at: kansspelautoriteit.nl. Primary source for channelisation data, enforcement actions, and H2 2025 market metrics.

Dutch Gambling Decree (Besluit Kansspelen op Afstand), advertising and marketing provisions, effective July 2023. Governs the untargeted advertising ban, the 95% audience-composition threshold, offline channel prohibitions, and sponsorship restrictions. Available via the KSA regulatory library at kansspelautoriteit.nl.

Wet Kansspelen op Afstand (KOA Act), in force October 2021. The primary statute under which the Dutch regulated online gambling market operates and from which the Gambling Decree derives its authority.

Note: Operators should consult qualified Dutch legal counsel for jurisdiction-specific application of the Gambling Decree’s advertising provisions to their particular campaign structures, affiliate arrangements, and sponsorship agreements. The KSA investigation into the applicability of the Decree to offline licensees advertising on social media is ongoing and may alter the scope of obligations covered in this article.