Dutch councillor revives calls to raise gambling age in the Netherlands
The CDA councillors’ call goes further than previous government proposals.
The Netherlands.- It’s been over a year since the then state secretary for legal protection Teun Struycken proposed a rise in the minimum age for online slots in the Netherlands. With Claudia van Bruggen now in the position following the formation of a new coalition government in February, it’s still not clear what the future is for the proposed gambling reforms.
However, a local councillor with the Christian Democratic Party (CDA), has refloated the idea of a change in the age limit, going further than the previous proposal. While Struycken’s proposal was to raise the legal age for online slots from 18 to 21, Meryam Sümer, representing Enschede, proposes that the age be raised to 24 for all gambling products.
Sümer, who works in welfare, said tougher restrictions were also urgently needed on gambling advertising and buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) schemes due to mounting debt among young people. Municipal data shows that one in five young people in Enschede is currently in debt. In 2025 alone, the city logged 12,145 reports of problematic debt, with 960 cases involving residents at risk of eviction or losing access to essential utilities. Sümer has pointed to easy access to credit and online gambling as major drivers.
Could the Netherlands raise its legal gambling age?
Such a high minimum age for gambling would make the Netherlands an outlier in Europe. Neighbouring Belgium increased the legal age for gambling from 18 to 21 back in 2024. Greece and Lithuania have also raised age restrictions to 21. Malta still has a minimum age of 25 for land-based casino entry for its own citizens, as does Georgia.
When Struycken made the proposal of a higher age limit for online slots, the Dutch gambling regulator KSA criticised the plan, suggesting that it could push young people towards illegal operators. In the parliamentary debate that followed in March 2025, Struycken floated a phased approach to avoid driving players to the black market. However, Christian Union leader Mirjam Bikker raised concerns that applying different age limits to specific gambling products could cause confusion, instead suggesting a uniform minimum age of 21 across all forms of gambling.
Sümer is now urging fellow councillors and political parties to press for legislative change. With youth debt rising and gambling ads still reaching vulnerable age groups, she argues that stronger national protections are essential.
As for advertising, the Netherlands imposed a ban on all untargeted gambling advertising in July 2023 and followed up with a ban on sports sponsorship from the start of last year. Regulations already prohibited marketing aimed at people aged under 24.
However, a recent study by the City University of Hong Kong and the University of Bristol found that 31 of 277 adverts on Meta platforms (11.2 per cent) targeted users aged 18 to 23. Land-based operations were found to be less compliant, with Meta’s default age settings found to be partly to blame. Academics proposed that the Netherlands consider imposing rules requiring the preauthorisation of gambling ads.
