Dutch Regulator Launches Campaigns to Get Parents and Young Adults Talking About Gambling Earlier

The Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has launched two public-awareness campaigns to get young people and the adults around them talking about gambling sooner, before problems take hold. It announced them on Monday, a week after publishing its annual and semi-annual reports.

The first, OpenOverGokken, launches in early November and is aimed at parents of teenagers and young adults aged about 16 to 25. It asks them to raise gambling alongside subjects such as sex and online safety, and points to OpenOverGokken.nl, an information portal introduced in 2025. The second campaign, under the Gokstop banner, speaks to young adults who are already struggling or may be at higher risk. Its message is that stopping does not have to wait for a crisis. It also asks family and friends to notice possible problems and encourage a first step toward the national self-exclusion and support programme.

The change in tone matters. Earlier Gokstop messaging focused on life after stopping. These campaigns focus on early recognition and on making the first step feel manageable. The regulator names social media, online video, advertising and in-game content as common routes by which young people encounter gambling.

The urgency rests on the regulator's own figures. People aged 18 to 23 made up about 22% of legal gambling accounts, despite representing roughly 9.2% of the adult population. Average monthly loss on accounts used by 18-to-23-year-olds was €34 in the first half of 2026. An earlier KSA survey found a sharp rise in registrations on or just after users' 18th birthdays: in 2024-25, 11% of accounts opened by 18-year-olds were registered on the birthday itself, and 38% within a month.

Analysis: those numbers show when young people open accounts and how they use them. On their own, they do not show how many of those accounts go on to cause harm. A birthday sign-up suggests a decision made quickly, often before any family conversation could happen. That makes the question of reach harder: a campaign aimed at parents and friends has to arrive before, or at the moment of, that sign-up to matter in those cases.

Political pressure is also building. Meryam Sümer, a local politician for the CDA (Christian Democratic Party), has called for national action to raise the minimum legal age for online gambling from 18 to 24. That is a call, not a government measure, and the reporting does not indicate a formal proposal.

The KSA says it expects to publish follow-up data or an evaluation. It could measure changes in public awareness, use of OpenOverGokken.nl and registrations with Gokstop. Portal visits and helpline sign-ups would show that people are engaging with the campaigns, but not that fewer young people are being harmed. The campaigns speak to families and friends. What changes at the point of account opening, where licensed operators run the sign-up process, is not addressed in the material reported so far.