How Dutch Youth Engage With Gambling, According to KSA Research

The Netherlands’ regulator KSA has published three consecutive studies on youth gambling behavior, and the pattern is fairly clear: early exposure starts long before legal age, friends are the main trigger for first bets, and many young players eventually move into online casino products. For PSPs, acquirers, and operators, this is the part that matters: under-18 access is not just a compliance issue, it is the point where account-sharing, onboarding controls, and payment monitoring all start to fail in practice.

1. First contact with gambling-like elements happens at 8-12 years old: scratch cards, lotteries, and game mechanics are the earliest touchpoints. First independent betting follows at 12-14, mainly on football, card games, and bets with friends. The move into iGaming comes at 14-16, with TOTO, Bet365, Unibet and other brands mentioned in the research.
2. The main way minors get around the 18+ restriction is by using an adult’s account — an older brother’s, a friend’s, and similar variants. Once they have tried online gambling, most concentrate on online betting and online poker, and most prefer legal sites.
3. 32% of college students gamble: 28% among those aged 15-17 and 39% among those aged 18+. Among minors aged 15-17, gambling frequency is split as follows: 74% play once a year or a few times a year, 17% monthly, 6% weekly, and 3% daily. Among adults 18+, the split is 61%, 25%, 10%, and 4%, respectively.
4. The most popular products also differ by age. Among minors, the top choices are scratch cards at 46%, bingo at 34%, and slot machines at 28%. Among adults, the list is led by casino at 46%, followed by scratch cards at 35%, sports betting at 32%, and slot machines at 29%.
5. 6.5% of all students face gambling problems: 4.5% of minors and 9.2% of young adults. At the other end of the scale, among the 68% of students who do not gamble, 90% have never felt like gambling, while 9% say they feel the urge sometimes.

New-account behavior is especially relevant for operators and payment teams. 33% of new accounts are created by players aged 18-24, and 14% are created by 18-year-olds specifically. During the first three months, young adults average 3.7 gambling days per month, compared with 4.3 for those older than 24; 18-year-olds average 4.2, and the overall average for new accounts is about 4.1 days.

1. Product preference at onboarding is heavily casino-led. Among new accounts opened by young adults, 72% start with casino only and 11% with sports betting only. For players older than 24, only 12% start with sports only.
2. Among 18-year-olds, 66% begin with casino, and 26% use both casino and sports in the first month. Among those aged 19-24, 76% start with casino and 11% with casino plus sports.