Q&A: KSA chairman admits the industry has “very few friends” in political circles  

There is rarely a quiet day in the Dutch market, as Michel Groothuizen has discovered since taking up the reins as chairman of the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) in July 2024, replacing René Jansen. In the seven months since there has been no shortage of talking points, including a plethora of financial punishments dished out to both licensed and unlicensed operators, though Groothuizen has expressed his dismay at the lack of power the KSA has when it comes to shutting out black market sites serving Dutch citizens.  

He has also seen the introduction of checks on players depositing more than €700 a month (€300 for under-25s) and the tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR) rise from 30.5% to 34.2%, with another increase to an eye-watering 37.8% on the horizon. Furthermore, there have been two high-profile market exits in the shape of LiveScore Bet and Flutter-owned tombola, a knock-on effect that was not considered by politicians, says the regulator’s chief.  

Nevertheless, Groothuizen appears to welcome the intense workload that comes with overseeing a market that contains 29 active licensees, including the likes of state-owned Holland Casino and Toto, as well as international heavyweights like Unibet, bet365 and LeoVegas.  

In fact, the KSA’s chairman has described the regulatory hotseat as “exciting”, though he concedes the country’s regulated gambling industry certainly lacks friends in the recently formed right-wing coalition government. Indeed, “the line between politics and the sector is very thin”, he warns, in an exclusive interview with EGR.  

EGR: How have you found the first seven months in charge?    

Michel Groothuizen (MG): Looking at the market in the Netherlands, it really has been an exciting period because of two main things. One is the tax hike. The gambling tax in the Netherlands is increasing, and has been increased since 1 January 2025, which means that whereas it was 30.5%, next year it will be about 38%. 

The other thing is that in 2024 there was an evaluation of the law, and one of the conclusions of that evaluation, which was not done by us, was that a consequence of the opening [of the online market] was a lot of new players, particularly those aged 18 to 24. This was so substantial that many people consider it a failure of the law. I’m not that negative myself, but it is a reality I must deal with.  

One of the impacts of legalisation was that we got better sight of what was going on. The black market in the Netherlands was, before 2021, a complete dark number and, while we don’t know exactly what’s going on in the illegal market, what we see now is 90% of players prefer to remain in the legal market. That is much higher than the number we had beforehand. 

In politics in the Netherlands, we see much more resistance towards the market than we had before. In the years that the law was created, gambling was considered a normal recreational activity. At this moment, the dominant voices in the discussion argue that gambling is a very risky, harmful activity and stricter rules are necessary. 

I think that’s a minority view because even those who oppose the present situation must see that it’s so easy to play on your phone that stricter rules are not realistic. 

Two months from now, I expect the minister responsible for the gambling market [Teun Struycken] will present his vision on how the market should look and how we must deal with gambling. What I hear from the department is they are thinking about [implementing] more restrictions. From the point of view of the market, that’s not the most welcome [news]. 

EGR: Your predecessor, René Jansen, expressed his fears last summer over the tax rate increases. Do you share those concerns?   

MG: Absolutely. In my discussions with the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for the tax hike, and the Ministry of Justice, I explain that if we want to keep players in the legal market, then it must be attractive enough. If the gap between the legal market and the illegal market is growing, it will be harder to keep players.  

The tax hike is not morally motivated whatsoever. It’s just to get money in. It could have been [done] any [other] way. It’s not the biggest source of income for government but, nevertheless, it’s one of many.  

If you want a market where the legal operators fulfil a lot of obligations, such as the duty of care and taking responsibility for players if they show harmful behaviours, that becomes more difficult when we simultaneously ask them for higher taxes. So yes, I completely agree with my predecessor.  

EGR: The Dutch market has already seen some casualties, at least in part due to the tax hike, with LiveScore Bet requesting its licence be revoked and tombola ceasing operations altogether. Do you think such potential consequences were considered by ministers?    

MG: No, they didn’t think about it at all. They did realise beforehand that one of the consequences could be a shakeout of operators, but that was not top of mind. We do see still new parties, especially from the online world, interested in the Dutch market, but we also see others leaving it. 

EGR: From a politician’s perspective, raising tax on the gambling industry is an easy lever to pull and won’t lose you many votes. Is that a key problem in the tax increase debate – that the industry has very few friends in government?    

MG: It’s absolutely true that the gambling industry has very few friends. When I compare it to the situation 10 years ago, the left and right wings were more positive than what we see now, and the operators had pretty good contact with government. When they invited a minister or members of parliament for discussion, they were willing to visit them and explain what was going on. 

EGR: In November, Dutch gambling minister Teun Struycken visited the KSA’s headquarters and said the regulated market faces significant challenges. What are the main ones in your view?  

MG: The most challenging thing is that in October we started with deposit limits [for players] per operator, and since then the maximum amount you may play with without having to explain whether you have enough money is €700 per month, or €300 per month if you are under 24. 

It started on 1 October, but it has consequences on the total volume of gambling. What I hear from operators is their volume of players and the amount of money involved fell by more than 20%, that’s quite a big consequence. What we see is most people may stay, but a lot of money is going elsewhere.  

Our biggest challenge is to be strict with the operators. They are losing a lot of players and a lot of money, but we want them to still adhere to our duty of care obligations. I think that’s really a big challenge for the market and for us. 

EGR: The gambling minister also noted how “much remains to be done” to protect Dutch players. Is that fair criticism? How is the KSA looking to address this?   

MG: To a certain level, that’s up to the minister, but what we expect and what I hear from many politicians is that the maximum deposits might change into an overall maximum [total combined across all operators], and then it depends whether that will be the same amount of €700, or if it will be higher or lower. 

I don’t know where the discussion will bring us, but if you [players] can explain that you have enough money available to lose, then there’s no problem. [However], we see that most people are very reluctant to tell operators too much about their financial position. 

Another thing is that from July onwards there will be a blanket ban on gambling sponsorships in sport. We see in Belgium, for instance, that the operators find ways to go around the rules, so that might be the case in the Netherlands as well. That remains to be seen, but it’s one of the most eagerly fought battles.  

EGR: How confident are you that December’s launch of the ‘Pick up your life again, take a gambling stop’ campaign, which raises awareness of Dutch national self-exclusion register Cruks, will have the desired effect?  

MG: The Cruks register is one of our best functioning instruments. Soon, it will pass 100,000 participants, and they all did it voluntarily. Every week, a few thousand people register with Cruks. Sometimes people leave it again, but as far as the legal market is concerned, that is one of the best functioning tools we have. 

Cruks’ involuntary part, where a player’s exclusion can be requested by a third party, has not been a success so far because it is very difficult to make people stay away. The whole procedure takes us three months, while the current law means they can only be excluded for half a year. 

EGR: In November, two Dutch MPs submitted a private bill to speed up a potential gambling ad ban. How concerned are you that such a ban could fuel a rise in black market activity?  

MG: For smoking, there’s a total ban on advertisements in the Netherlands, and that’s pretty easy. You need a physical place where you get your cigarettes, but supermarkets, tobacco shops and the factories are not allowed to advertise the product. It works because it’s a physical item. 

In gambling, which is accessible from everyone’s phone or laptop, and it’s so easy to get the product, illegal operators won’t hesitate to attract people in any way they can. I consider it the wrong way to forbid legal parties to make advertisements. We may limit that. We might put restrictions on it, we may ask conditions, but we do think as an authority we should give the legal operators the opportunity to show themselves and to enable new customers to find them. 

If we forget that, it would be a present to the illegal markets. When I try to explain this to individual politicians, quite often they agree with me, but the ones who are already reluctant towards the gambling market consider it the wrong signal to enable the legal operators [to advertise]. That’s a pity. 

If one operator has a big campaign, the others have to follow to not lose market share. But in the last three years, the rate of advertisement has increased and people have begun to show resistance and say, ‘that’s not what we want’. 

EGR: The same bill proposes giving the regulator greater authority, including increased powers to shut out illegal operators. Is this what you need? 

MG: I want to have the ability to block illegal sites for even short-term periods, instead of the situation we have now. I do think that would be helpful.  

On the other hand, in October, I spoke with ANJ [National Gambling Authority for France] chair Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, who has this ability already, and she told me the ANJ took down more than 300 operators in the first half of 2024. Nevertheless, the stream of illegal operators didn’t stop.  

There are perhaps more than 50,000 suppliers of games in the world, and every month we make a list of the hundreds of them who reach the Dutch market, but as soon as we have taken down the biggest ones, others fill the gap.  

EGR: You recently claimed the KSA is becoming “more and more annoying” for certain licensed online operators. What did you mean by that?   

MG: The rules have become stricter after we started this system with pretty open norms. What we see is some operators take them seriously while others try to do as little as they can get away with. As soon as that happens, we see a kind of race to the bottom as a consequence. We must be more clear and strict about what we expect, so you see a change from these open norms to more exact guidelines. 

What we don’t want is the duty of care to become a competition. We want operators all to behave above a certain level, but that’s not what we see now. We have become stricter, and that may feel annoying to them, yet it’s not so much that the law has changed since. 

EGR: What is the KSA’s roadmap for 2025 and what do you hope to achieve?  

MG: One thing is to get a better idea about young people below the age of 18 and find ways to keep them away from the gambling market. We see a lot of worrying developments. For instance, in children’s games you quite often see gambling elements, as well as social casinos that are available on app stores to users of all ages. 

The difference between the sectors is diminishing and, for that reason, we want to get a better picture and take measures to keep them away from the market. [Players] below 18 are an absolute taboo for us.