October 2021 was a milestone for the Dutch gambling market. For the first time, operators could legally offer online games of chance to Dutch consumers, provided they held a licence from the Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit). More than four years on, the market has matured, but one problem has proved persistent: operators without a Dutch licence keep actively recruiting Dutch players, and some of those players don't know exactly what type of operator they're dealing with.
Casino Life Magazine spoke with Luc Goossens, editor and analyst at oplichting.com. His team follows developments within the Dutch gambling market daily and also maintains an overview of legal online casinos in the Netherlands, which consumers can use to check which operators hold a licence from the Netherlands Gambling Authority. In that role he regularly sees how players only discover after the fact that they were not playing at a Dutch licence holder.
Luc, when you look at the Dutch market today, what stands out to you most?
Luc: That players still look too much at the packaging and too little at what's behind it.
I understand it. When you visit a casino, you see a bonus, a game selection, a professional homepage. Those are the things that catch your eye straight away. But the questions that really matter — what rights you have if something goes wrong, which authority supervises, how a complaint is handled — only come up after a bad experience.
What has stayed with me over the past few years is how many people automatically assume that Dutch protection also applies to a website simply because it's in Dutch and accepts Dutch payment methods. That's just not the case. And at the wrong moment, that difference can turn out to be quite significant.
For this magazine's international readers: how is the Dutch licensing landscape structured?
Luc: Outside its own borders, the Dutch licence is often associated with legal Dutch online casinos, but the Netherlands Gambling Authority supervises much more than that. It distinguishes between several licence categories, including casino games played against the licence holder, casino games played between players, sports betting and betting on horse racing. Each category has its own conditions and supervision.
For online operators, the requirements are particularly extensive. It's not just about system security or a correct game selection. Operators must demonstrably invest in responsible gambling, fraud prevention, data protection and anti-money-laundering legislation. A licence is therefore not a one-off approval. It's an ongoing obligation to keep meeting high standards, and to do so under active supervision.
Many players see a licence as a logo at the bottom of a page. Why does that fall short?
Luc: Because you essentially never see a licence until you need it. Only then do you notice whether it's there or not.
Take iDIN. Foreign readers may not know it: it's verification via your own Dutch bank. You log in, your identity is confirmed, done. Players sometimes see it as an extra step they'd rather skip. But it's the reason a twelve-year-old can't create an account and why fraudsters have a much harder time.
Deposit limits also get a lot of criticism. But gambling problems usually creep in slowly. Someone who keeps wagering a little more week after week often doesn't even notice it themselves. A limit forces you to stop and think for a moment. That's uncomfortable, but it works.
Cruks remains a recurring topic of conversation. How do you view it?
Luc: I understand the irritation among some players, but I think they're missing the point of it.
The remarkable thing about Cruks is not that you can exclude yourself, but that the exclusion immediately applies to the entire licensed Dutch market. Not to one casino, not to one app, but to everything at once. That makes the system much harder to circumvent than people sometimes think.
For operators it means extra work at every registration and every login. That's a real burden, I won't deny it. But it also says something about how the Netherlands has organised responsibility. It doesn't lie solely with the individual operator. It's spread across the entire sector.
So how do operators without a Dutch licence still reach Dutch consumers?
Luc: In all kinds of ways, and they're getting better at it.
Google Ads is one. Certain search terms around online gambling are heavily contested, including by parties that have no Ksa licence at all. Comparison sites and review platforms are another route. They sometimes refer visitors on to non-licensed operators, and the visitor has no idea. Telegram groups play a part, as do influencers on Instagram and TikTok. They promote a casino without mentioning whether it's even legal in the Netherlands.
What makes it extra difficult: many of these sites now simply look good. Dutch-language, iDEAL as a payment option, sleek design. For an ordinary user, there's little that stands out as suspicious.
If a player wants to check whether a casino is legal, where should they start?
Luc: With a few simple checks that most people overlook. Is the operator on the Netherlands Gambling Authority's list of licence holders? That list is simply public. Always check, too, whether a licence number is stated and whether it matches the details in the Authority's public register. Does the site ask for iDIN verification at registration? That system is only available to licensed parties, so if it's missing, that already tells you something. Are there deposit limits, and are they actually applied? And is there Dutch-language customer service? That's not an added extra — it's simply mandatory.
It also helps to click through to the fine print. Who's behind the site? Where is the company registered? How do you file a complaint? Simple questions, but most people only ask them once something has already gone wrong — when they're precisely meant to prevent problems.
You regularly receive reports from consumers via oplichting.com. What do they usually concern?
Luc: Almost never licences. People write to us when something is wrong. A payout that doesn't arrive, an account that's suddenly restricted, a verification that keeps dragging on.
What strikes me most in that is that many of these people didn't know where they were actually playing. They thought they were with a Dutch operator, because the site was in Dutch and everything looked normal. Only when there was a problem did they discover there was no Dutch licence and that the protection they were counting on simply wasn't there.
That's the moment when the difference really becomes tangible. Not at registration, not at the first deposit, but precisely at the point where you need help.
Is that the biggest risk of playing outside the regulated market?
Luc: Yes. Not the bonus terms, not the payment methods, but the disappearance of the protective framework at the moment you need it.
With a licensed operator there are procedures, supervision and clear responsibilities. That doesn't guarantee a player will always be in the right, but it does mean there's a framework within which a dispute is handled. The Ksa can intervene. There are escalation options.
With operators that have no Dutch licence, that falls away. The Ksa has no jurisdiction there. Legal support from within the Netherlands often turns out to be difficult in practice. That's not a theoretical risk — it's something that comes up in the reports we receive.
Technical checks and software certification rarely come up in conversations like this. Wrongly so?
Luc: Absolutely wrongly, although I understand why players don't dwell on it. You play a game and you want it to work. The software behind it doesn't interest most of them.
But there's an extensive system behind it. Licence holders must work with certified software. Random number generators are independently tested. Payout percentages are checked and have to match what is communicated.
Operators pay a hefty price for that. Players get something in return that you won't just find on a bonus page: the certainty that a game works fairly.
Data protection stays underexposed in discussions like this. Why does it deserve more attention?
Luc: Because players don't always realise how much they're actually giving away. An online casino processes identity data, payment information, transaction history and data on playing behaviour. Taken together, that's quite a sensitive package.
Licensed operators are bound by the AVG — known outside the Netherlands as the GDPR. That means concrete obligations around the storage, processing and security of personal data, with oversight and enforcement.
With operators outside the Dutch market, that certainty isn't automatic. And that's not abstract: it concerns data that, if misused, can have serious consequences for the person involved.
Channelisation is a term used a lot in B2B circles. Why is it so decisive?
Luc: Because it's the litmus test for whether regulation actually works.
A licensed operator invests heavily to meet all the Dutch requirements. If a competitor doesn't have to because it operates outside supervision, then you're not competing on a level playing field. It's really that simple.
But it goes further than market share. A regulated market only has value if players see enough reason to stay within it. Channelisation is not only a commercial question, but also an indication of how well the sector delivers on its promise to consumers.
Why is this not only a consumer problem, but also a concern for licence holders?
Luc: Because licence holders invest heavily in compliance, responsible gambling, technical checks and data protection. Those are obligations that cost time and money.
When operators without a Dutch licence try to reach the same players without meeting those requirements, there's no level playing field. On top of that, negative publicity around non-licensed operators can also damage trust in the sector as a whole.
That's why operators have an interest in players understanding the difference between legal and illegal offerings.
Finally: what task do you see for operators in the coming years?
Luc: Put simply: explain better what they're worth. Not in jargon, but in plain, understandable language.
A bonus offer sells itself. But the things where licensed operators really make the difference — fair software, good customer service and the protection of personal data — are barely visible to players. Yet those are precisely the things that count the moment something goes wrong.
The Netherlands has built a solid system. The sector may be a bit prouder of that and should say so too. Because many players only realise what they're missing out on when it's too late.
