One year and two months after the regulation of the Dutch online gambling space, the market has grown to include 24 operators serving 563,000 players, but this has left the regulator with a conundrum to address.

René Jansen, Chair of the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch Gambling Authority, broke down market developments in the Netherlands as a full year of regulated online activity comes to a close, in a speech to the Amsterdam Gambling & Awareness Congress 2022.

The KSA’s lead outlined that the regulator has three key objectives: protecting consumers, preventing gambling addiction and combating illegality and crime.

However, Jansen observed that prevention of gambling is, to some extent, at odds with the KSA’s remit to issue licences, which has seen the number of active operators in the Netherlands double since 1 October.