Netherlands’ online gambling participation up 20 per cent in two years

Online gambling participation in the Netherlands has grown by 20 per cent over the past two years. An estimated number of 1.86m Dutch citizens had engaged in some form of unauthorised online gambling for money at some point in 2018. The 2018 figure represents a more than 300k increase in the number of online gamblers.

In a survey, which queried over 15k respondents between the ages of 18 and 80, 38 per cent of the respondents copped to gambling of some form, while 18 per cent admitted gambling online.

Sports betting tied with bingo as the most popular online gambling activities with 9 per cent participation. However, online betting’s 9 per cent was a much higher share of the 12 per cent who admitted betting via any medium, compared to the 25 per cent share of bingo players who played via any medium. Online casino participation scored 8 per cent while poker earned a 7 per cent score.

Strong majorities among all online gambling verticals expressed their preference for patronising a Dutch-approved option, even though such a beast currently does not exist.