Gokreclame for online gambling in the Netherlands is allowed only for operators holding a KSA licence, and only through targeted online channels: websites, social media, direct mail, on-demand video and the operator's own site. TV, radio, print, billboards, sponsorship and role models are off limits, and at least 95% of the people reached must be 24 or older.
The detail matters because the KSA enforces ad by ad, licences are being renewed right now, and the government wants to go further.
What is gokreclame and who regulates it?
Gokreclame is simply the Dutch word for gambling advertising. The legal base is the Wet op de kansspelen, which the Wet kansspelen op afstand (usually shortened to Wet Koa) amended to open a regulated online market. The Wet Koa took effect on 1 April 2021 and the first online licences were granted from 1 October 2021, as the Staatscourant 2022, 11826 explanatory note records.
A KSA vergunning, the online kansspelvergunning issued under article 31a of the Wet op de kansspelen, is the only way to offer online casino games, poker and betting legally. The regulator is the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), an independent body that supervises and licenses gambling in the European part of the Netherlands.
The day-to-day advertising rules sit in two lower instruments: the Besluit werving, reclame en verslavingspreventie kansspelen (the decree) and the Regeling werving, reclame en verslavingspreventie kansspelen (the ministerial regulation). One point the KSA spells out on its page of main rules for gambling advertising: if you do not hold a licence, you may not advertise at all. That includes companies whose licence application is still pending.
What did the untargeted advertising ban change on 1 July 2023?
It moved Dutch online casino reclame out of mass media for good. The Besluit ongerichte reclame kansspelen op afstand (Staatsblad 2023, 120) added article 2ab to the decree and took effect on 1 July 2023. Since then, a Koa licence holder may not advertise through broadcast services, in newspapers, magazines or other printed media, or anywhere visible in a public place or in a building open to the public. The KSA's own examples are billboards, bus shelters, casinos, arcades, cinemas and cafés.
The KSA also treats promotional games of chance as untargeted advertising, so those are gone too. Its announcement of the ban framed the goal plainly: advertising must not reach minors, young adults and other vulnerable groups.
In practice this reclameverbod on gokken ended the TV-heavy launch playbook of 2021 and 2022. A reach-first brand plan for the Dutch market is a plan built on channels that have been closed for three years.
Can gambling operators still sponsor sport in the Netherlands?
No, not if they hold an online licence. Sponsoring by gokbedrijven counts as untargeted advertising, and the ban came with a phased transition for contracts signed before 1 July 2023:
- sponsorship of TV programmes and events had to stop by 1 July 2024;
- sponsorship of athletes, teams, clubs, competitions, shirts and other material ended on 1 July 2025.
Contracts could not be renewed or changed after 1 July 2023. The KSA's sponsorship page is strict about what "no" means here: no boards, kit or merchandise carrying the brand, no routing money through news or sports sites as intermediaries, and leftover merchandise has to be destroyed or recalled. The licence holder is responsible even when a club or third party does the displaying.
Land-based licence holders may still sponsor, but hybrid operators must keep that clearly apart from anything resembling online promotion. And unlicensed brands are no loophole: the KSA treats their visible sponsorship in Dutch sport as promotion of illegal gambling.
What targeted online advertising is still allowed?
Online advertising is allowed, but under conditions that make it closer to a compliance process than a media buy. Under article 2ab(2) of the decree, internet and on-demand advertising is permitted only if the licence holder:
- gives people the option to say they do not want to be reached;
- takes the best available measures to keep the ad away from minors, young adults and other vulnerable groups;
- shows, using the best available techniques, that at least 95% of the people reached were 24 or older.
The KSA's guidance on not targeting vulnerable groups lists where this applies: social media, direct mailing, digital radio, on-demand TV, video platforms, news and comparison sites and other affiliate websites, and the operator's own gaming environment. It names TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube as platforms with large young audiences and says that without a suitable age filter or other safeguard you should not use a channel at all. It also recommends a whitelist of pre-approved sites over a blacklist.
The 95% threshold is a result obligation, not a best-effort one. If a campaign misses it, the KSA's summary is blunt: you must stop the ad. Operators have to monitor reach themselves and be able to show the KSA the reporting on request.
Other rules still apply on top. No advertising in non-gambling games or on sites that offer them. No betting ads aimed at spectators or viewers during a match, except on the operator's own interface. No ads mixed with responsible gambling messages, and no advertising aimed at people who have excluded themselves from your games or who use addiction prevention or care services.
For affiliates this is the key part: comparison and review sites are named advertising channels, so the 95% and opt-out rules cover traffic bought through them.
Role models and influencers
Online operators cannot use role models in any form. The ban, a change to article 4 of the Regeling, took effect on 30 June 2022, a year before the wider ban. The KSA's role model guidance covers current and former professional athletes, actors, models, streamers, vloggers and influencers. Their image or voice counts, as does the operator's logo appearing alongside a role model's name, image or voice.
The KSA reads this broadly. In January 2025 it issued seven warnings, four of them for Formula 1 betting ads that hinted at Max Verstappen through wordplay and visuals without showing him. Another concerned an online operator using an actor and cartoon characters on its website. In August 2026, after extra monitoring around the World Cup, it called out Betcity and TOTO Winkel for shirts showing a famous player's name and number next to betting options. Neither showed the player. Both ads were pulled.
Our advice to any team briefing creative: if the concept only works because the audience recognises a person, it fails the test.
How does the KSA enforce the rules?
Warnings first, heavier sanctions for repeat or deliberate breaches. The January 2025 notice says licence holders answer for their advertising even when a partner buys it, and it made advertising a main priority of the 2025 supervision agenda. The KSA said in May 2025 it would act immediately on sponsorship breaches after 1 July 2025.
Its published sanction decisions show its reach. In March 2026 it fined an illegal operator €24,846,000, noting that the law caps fines at 10% of worldwide turnover, and warned that influencers promoting illegal sites can be sanctioned too.
There is a second, quieter lever. When the KSA granted the first eight follow-up licences on 17 September 2026, it looked explicitly at violations definitively established over the previous five years and asked applicants what they had done to fix them. The original 2021 licences expire at the end of September 2026; the new ones run from October 2026 to September 2031. A marketing breach now follows you into your next licence review.
Key dates in Dutch gokreclame
| Date | What changed | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 April 2021 | Wet Koa takes effect | Stcrt. 2022, 11826 |
| 1 October 2021 | First online licences granted | Stcrt. 2022, 11826 |
| 30 June 2022 | Role model ban for high-risk gambling | Stcrt. 2022, 11826 |
| 1 July 2023 | Untargeted advertising ban for online gambling; no new sponsorship deals | Stb. 2023, 120 |
| 1 July 2024 | Transition ends for TV programme and event sponsorship | KSA |
| 1 July 2025 | Sports sponsorship by online operators banned | KSA |
| 12 June 2026 | Cabinet announces plan to ban online gambling advertising and bonuses | Rijksoverheid |
| October 2026 | Follow-up licences start, valid to September 2031 | KSA |
Is a full verbod on gokreclame coming?
The government says yes, but it is not law yet. On 12 June 2026 the cabinet, on a proposal from State Secretary Van Bruggen, announced that it wants an advertising ban for online gambling and a ban on bonuses such as free bets at sign-up, alongside an overarching deposit limit with an affordability test. The plans will be worked into a bill. No date has been published, so anyone quoting one is guessing.
What this means for an operator's marketing plan
Treat the Dutch market as an owned-and-earned market with a thin, audited paid layer. Organic search, your own site and app, CRM for players who opted in, and content that answers what Dutch players actually search for will outlast whatever the bill ends up banning. Paid social and affiliate traffic can still work, but only with age data you can show the regulator, written agreements signed before any partner goes live, and a whitelist rather than hope.
Plan for the bill now. If a full ban on gokreclame passes, brands that built search visibility and retention in the meantime will still be acquiring players.
Basher works only with licensed operators, and for the Netherlands that means KSA licence holders. We build compliant search, content and CRM programmes that fit the rules above. See our Netherlands market page or talk to us.