Opposition parties in the Netherlands have put forward a proposed motion to significantly clamp down on online gambling.
Mirjam Bikker and Sarah Dobbe, the respective leaders of the ChristenUnie (CU) and the Socialist Party (SP), have made the case that the rate of problem gambling among Dutch citizens has increased proportionally to the number of players since the online market was re-regulated back in 2021.
Both parties stated that since the reform’s introduction, around 450,000 new gamblers have joined the market and that young adults, which generally means 18-to-21-year-olds in the Dutch context, represent around 22% of all current online gambling accounts.
Bikker said: “The slot machine is now literally in your pocket and in shopping streets you see gambling ads everywhere.”
