The Dutch Gambling Authority, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has launched two new campaigns seeking to address the impact of gambling advertising and gambling harm on young people.
The campaigns come amidst a push by the Dutch government to completely ban gambling advertising. This forms part of a wider regulatory overhaul, with policymakers also eyeing up a ban on betting bonuses and an overarching online gambling deposit limit.
However, while Dutch gambling advertising is up for the chopping block, the KSA is still concerned about the different ways young people come into contact with gambling content: whether this be via social media, online videos, typical adverts, or gaming.
The authority is seeking to help Dutch parents speak to their children about this type of exposure via the first of its two campaigns, OpenOverGokkenm, which encourages parents to “talk to your children about gambling in time”.
The campaign takes its name from the launch of the OpenOverGokken.nl platform in 2025.
Adding to this is the second campaign, “Gambling Stop”. The campaign encourages people who are beginning to experience gambling problems “take timely action”, focusing on young adults who are already experiencing problems that are at an increased risk of harm.
The campaign’s banner read “every moment is a Gambling stop moment”, with the message being that people suffering gambling harm do not “have to wait for a special or life-changing moment to decide to stop gambling”.
“Whereas previous campaigns primarily emphasized how someone could pick up their life again after taking a Gambling Stop, the emphasis now lies on the moment when someone decides to take a Gambling Stop,” a KSA statement read.
“Using relatable situations, the Gaming Authority aims to make that step as accessible as possible. At the same time, the campaign shows what taking a Gambling Stop can mean: more peace, relief, and room for other things in daily life.”
The KSA’s campaigns come amidst widespread concern about gambling harm in the Netherlands, a concern which has grown in the years since the launch of a new regulated market in October 2021.
This campaign is largely what has led to the clampdown on advertising, with many Dutch politicians and the general public alarmed at the surge in advertising from regulated gambling companies following the 2021 market launch.
However, the regulated market has counter-argued that its advertising is necessary to ensure gamblers only bet with regulated and taxed platforms as opposed to illegal offshore ones.
The KSA’s mention of social media as a channel by which young people are exposed to gambling is interesting, as the Dutch trade body VNLOK is in the midst of summoning Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to court over the prevalence of illegal gambling advertising on its platforms.
The gambling regulator has also repeatedly expressed frustration at big tech companies, with KSA Chair, Michel Groothuizen, proclaiming that these firms gain “a lot of money from the ads of illegal gambling providers, in the Netherlands, in Europe, and worldwide”.
