The Netherlands is seeing a sharp rise in specialist gambling addiction treatment. New figures show a 13% year-on-year jump, a shift that reflects deeper changes in the country’s betting landscape since regulated online gambling launched in 2021.

LADIS, the Dutch addiction-care monitoring system, recorded 3,108 people entering specialist treatment for gambling-related problems in 2025, up from 2,750 the year before. It’s a reversal of an earlier decline. Addiction specialists have been watching this pattern closely ever since the Remote Gambling Act opened the market to private operators nearly four years ago.

A Market Transformation and Its Consequences

The Dutch gambling market expansion was billed as a regulatory move designed to formalize an underground betting economy. What happened next was rapid market penetration. Operators pumped money into consumer acquisition through television, radio, sports sponsorships, and targeted digital advertising. Hundreds of thousands of players registered within months of the October 2021 launch.

The treatment data now reflects the market’s maturation. Researchers are clear on this: the increase is not some statistical artifact born from improved reporting or new treatment centres joining the monitoring system. The upward trajectory has held steady among facilities that have submitted consistent data for nearly a decade. That lends real credibility to the underlying trend.

Here’s what’s telling: roughly half of those entering treatment had no previous history of specialist addiction care. The rise appears driven primarily by new cases rather than individuals cycling back into the system.

Policy Response and Consumer Restrictions

Political pressure mounted quickly after the initial market expansion. The Dutch government has since implemented a series of tightening measures: bans on untargeted gambling advertisements, phase-outs of sports sponsorship deals, daily deposit limits for online accounts. The national self-exclusion register, Cruks, now boasts more than 100,000 registrations, allowing individuals to voluntarily exclude themselves from all licensed betting platforms.

These interventions signal a recognition that ease of access, constant advertising exposure, and the always-on nature of mobile betting applications present genuine challenges to consumer protection.

Broader Context

Gambling remains a relatively modest proportion of the wider addiction treatment landscape. Of nearly 68,000 people treated for addiction across all categories in 2025, gambling accounted for roughly 4.6 percent. Alcohol dependency dominates specialist care at 43 percent overall, climbing to 60 percent among those over 55. Cannabis leads among under-25s.

Worth knowing: the LADIS figures capture only specialist treatment centres that report to the national system. The true number of individuals seeking help for gambling problems likely exceeds these figures considerably. As online betting becomes increasingly embedded in daily life through smartphone applications and seamless payment integration, demand for treatment services is expected to remain under upward pressure.