Gambling Business Group CEO Peter Hannibal has highlighted the findings of a recent report by the Netherlands Gambling Authority which reveals the country’s black market is now larger than the regulated sector, warning of the effects of over-officious regulation.

Though online gambling was only legalised in the Netherlands for the first time in 2021, overall visitation to legal websites has already been dwarfed by players regularly using the unregulated market to place bets, dramatically impacting GGR for licensed operators.

“Too much regulation equals Bigger Black Market,” said Hannibal. “This is where increasing gambling regulations takes us without proper governance. More regulation does NOT equal more protections for the vulnerable.”

The KSA’s semi-annual monitoring report covers the first half of 2025, and found that total GGR from licensed operators declined 14 percent to €600m following the introduction of the Responsible Gaming Policy 2024.

“In stark contrast, the report estimates the black market’s GGR at €617m over the same period, slightly surpassing the regulated market,” reported gaming journal Next.io. “This represents a notable shift in the balance of the Dutch gambling landscape.”

“The KSA noted that the decline followed the introduction of stricter player protection measures and reduced advertising opportunities, which may have influenced player behaviour.”

And that’s a point Peter Hannibal is particularly aware of. He noted: “There are concerns about the GC’s increasingly disproportionate approach to AML, particularly in land based gambling when their own risk assessments categorise venues such as FECs, Bingo and AGCs as either ‘low’ or at worst ‘medium’. We are in danger of stretching these smaller businesses to breaking point with over-regulation. We do not want to replicate the Dutch experience and push our consumers towards the unregulated gambling market.”