KSA Conducts Study on Effectiveness of Rules Introduced in H2 2024 to Protect iGaming Players

The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has conducted a study on the effectiveness of the various rules that were introduced in the second half of 2024 to better protect players in the online gambling market.

The study shows that the new rules have been effective in the first three months: since their introduction, the number of high losses per account has fallen. There were fears in advance that players would circumvent the rules by creating more accounts, but there are currently no indications of this. The channelling based on players (the share of players who play with legal providers compared to illegal ones) is also hardly changing at the moment. However, the gross gaming result (BSR, stake minus prizes paid out) of legal providers did fall: this fell by around 10% in the first three months after introduction.

The Ministry of Justice and Security made it mandatory for players to contact the provider before they can set a deposit limit of more than €150 (young adults) or €350 per month, so that providers can inform them of the dangers of such a high limit. Since the introduction of these measures, the number of players who set such a high deposit limit has dropped significantly, to less than 50%. The figures also show that players are more likely to adjust their limit downwards after contact with a gambling provider.

The KSA rules were particularly affected by the limits on net deposits: when depositing more than €300 (young adults aged 18-24) or €700 (24 and older), the provider checks whether a player can afford that amount and if this is not the case or the check is not carried out, the provider must block deposits for the rest of the month. The percentage of players who deposit more than the deposit limits (€300 for young adults aged 18-24 or €700 for 24 and older) has fallen sharply since the introduction of the Policy Rule: from 9.7% to 3.8%. And for young adults from 12% to 2.8%. Due to the lower deposit limits, the average loss per player account has also decreased, from €117 to €83.

The BSR of legal providers has decreased by 10% after the introduction of the measures. Before the introduction of the rules, approximately 4% of players lost more than €1000. Now that is 1%. This indicates that the introduction of the policy rules has led to a reduction in excessive gambling at legal providers.