Releasing Online Gambling leads to a doubling of gambling tax

There will be few people who Releasing the online gambling marketin October 2021, will call a great success with retroactive effect. Okay, of course the gambling companies themselves, who have made every effort to attract as many Dutch players as possible.

But further? Through the massive advertisements (in the meantime partly forbidden) The gambling companies were experienced as rather annoying: anyone who watches football or skating cannot escape Gambling companies as a sponsor. Not to mention the number of people that problematic debts has sustained or is addicted Thanks to their gambling behavior. Even politics now wonders whether the opening of the gambling market was so wise.

Yet there is one party very happy will be with the online gambling market. And that is the tax authorities. In a few years, the proceeds from the gambling tax are almost doubledas the CBS announces this morning. For the first time in history, games of chance deliver the treasury one billion euros on. In 2019 that was 572 million euros.

After that, the proceeds fell, especially as a result of the Coronapandemie (which had to close casinos). The online gambling market opened since the end of 2021, the tax revenues shot up. Of the 1 billion last year, according to the tax authorities just under 400 million euros Coming from online gambling. Almost the entire growth compared to 2019.

That tax money is of course raised by the gamblers. In 2024, Dutch households gave 4.4 billion Out of gambling and games of chance. In 2021 that was 2.5 billion.

In the coming years, as the expectation is at least, the proceeds from the gambling tax will be just increase further. Not so much because even more gamblers will be added, but because it tax rate Significant is increased. In 2024 the gambling tax was still 30.5 percent, as of January 1, 2025 the rate was increased to 34.2 percent, with the intention to further increase this in 2026 to 37.8 percent.

Gambling companies beeping that that is no longer possible. In particular Holland Casino is having a hard time and had to close a branch. But for the time being, politics hardly responds to these cribs. It seems that the gambling market A real dairy cow is becoming for the tax authorities. The big question is: at what social price?