Google responds amid call for controls against unlicensed gambling in the Netherlands
The tech giant says it already has measures in place to prevent the advertising of unlicensed gambling.
The Netherlands.- Google has responded to Dutch politicians’ calls for controls over the advertising of unlicensed gambling in the Netherlands. It says it already has policies to prevent the promotion of illegal offerings.
Mikal Tsegga of the Dutch Labour Party and Willem Koops of the New Social Contract Party had called for the government to ban the appearance of unlicensed operators in Google search results. They urged the government to include a measure in planned amendments to gambling legislation in order to allow websites to be “findable in search engines” only if they have express approval from the Dutch regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA).
The move would require search providers like Google to consult a white list of approved operators drawn up by the regulator and to show only region-specific results.
However, Google has told CasinoNieuws.nl that it already does this, using a whitelist based on KSA licence approvals within its own advertising policy. It says it has introduced the same measure in Nigeria and Germany as a result of similar concerns about unlicensed gambling.
The problem is that this doesn’t always work. The Dutch Quality Mark Responsible Affiliates (KVA) contacted Google earlier in the year to raise concerns about domains advertising themselves as “casino without Cruks (the Dutch self-exclusion system). It estimates that over a million Dutch customers have used black market sites.
State secretary for legal protection Teun Struycken is still considering a range of potential gambling reforms, which could include a rise in the age limit for online slots. Last month, the industry body VNLOK took part in a round-table discussion to present the views of licenced operators.
A top priority for the trade bodies VNLOK and NOGA is to avoid a ban on all gambling advertising. The Netherlands banned untargeted gambling ads in July 2023, but Teun Struycken, the minister for legal protection in the Netherlands, has suggested that stricter rules will be introduced to limit the appeal of online gambling specifically.
Meanwhile, the KSA says it began 2025 with a major clampdown on illegal gambling apps. It says it’s had 20 unlicensed gambling apps removed from app stores in the Netherlands since the start of the year.
