SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Dutch problem gamblers are rarely contacted by operators, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) regulatory authority has revealed via a new target group study.
The regulator examined a small pool of 139 people in care registered with AGOG, a Dutch NGO that provides specialised treatment to problem gamblers. The group represented 70% of participants in AGOG self-help groups taking place in the fall of 2024.
Results from this isolated group have shown ineffective operator intervention among the majority of surveyed players, despite them exhibiting signs of risky behaviour.
A total of 83% of survey participants have never received a ban, while 68% have said they’ve never been engaged in a meaningful problem gambling conversation by operators.
Those who said they’ve been subjected to intervention action by operators reported that it usually does not lead to changes in behaviour, raising the question about the effectiveness of current measures.
Looking into the demographics of the AGOG-registered problem gamblers, the KSA revealed that 81% have started gambling before the age of 24, while 46% have admitted to starting before they turned 18.
While arcades and land-based casinos were present in the responses, online remains the dominant gambling vertical. This is a reflection of the fact that a large part of the respondents have gambled on both legal and illegal platforms.
A contributing factor for the black market migration is that players already on the Cruks national self-exclusion list are still willing to gamble, but can no longer access legal websites.
Everybody’s different
While the majority of respondents reported personal struggles as a result of their problematic behaviour, the scope and nature of experienced problems varied across the board.
When it comes to financial losses, for example, the KSA reported that half of those surveyed lost more than €50k, while a quarter had to say goodbye to less than €1k.
“This shows that not everyone with a gambling problem suffers big losses, but the longer someone gambles, the greater the loss often is,” the regulator said.
The good news, if any, is that almost all of the people questioned have recognised their own problem behaviour, such as the urge to win back losses, the need to gamble daily, and the increase in the amounts they wager.
More than half of those who joined AGOG in the past two years have since stopped gambling altogether.
However, the regulator added that the temptation to start playing again remains quite high, driven by advertisements and common behaviour within their social circles, among others.
And while the survey’s small target group is far from being representative of the problem gambling picture in the Netherlands, the KSA states that it intends to utilise its findings to further strengthen the market’s supervision to increase player protection.
