Gaming tax rises to 1 billion euros due to legalization online gambling

This article was last updated on March 27, 2025

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

Gaming tax rises to 1 billion euros due to legalization online gambling

In the past year, the Dutch government received a record amount of 1 billion euros from the gambling tax. Figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) show that this is a doubling compared to five years ago.

It is mainly due to the legalization of online gambling in 2021. The gambling tax must be paid on the profit at, among other things, casinos, online gambling and the lottery.

During the Coronapandemie, tax revenues fell from games of chance because casinos and play halls were closed. After the reopening, the income recovered, but the large rise only started after the legalization of online gambling.

“There were many new providers on the Dutch market, and also foreign gambling sites that first operated illegally, now pay taxes,” says Peter Hein van Mulligen, chief economist at Statistics Netherlands.

More tax, but not necessarily more gamblers

The growing tax revenues do not automatically mean that more gambling is being made. “Previously there was also gambling online, but illegal. Now that that market is regulated, taxes are being levied on,” says Van Mulligen. “It is comparable to the situation in which XTC would be legalized: not necessarily more use, but more tax revenues.”

According to Van Mulligen, the number of gamblers may have increased slightly. “Since legalization, providers in the Netherlands can advertise their services, which may have led to extra players.”

Research by IPSOS I&O on behalf of the WODC shows that 70 percent of players who played a game of chance for the first time last year did not say for the first time after October 2021.

Higher tax rates in the future

In addition to the growth of online gambling, higher tax rates also play a role in the rising yields. Since January 1 this year, the tax has been increased by four percentage point to 34 percent. This will increase even further next year.

“This may be that people start gambling less because it becomes more expensive,” says Van Mulligen. “But if the gambling behavior remains the same, the tax revenues will rise further.”

The income from the gambling tax is not specifically spent on, for example, gambling prevention, but disappear in the general state treasury.