VNLOK chair accuses Meta of enabling illegal gambling ads in Dutch market

Dutch trade body VNLOK has escalated its dispute with Meta, with chairman Björn Fuchs telling SBC News that the social media giant is "facilitating a digital Wild West" by failing to curb illegal gambling advertising reaching Dutch consumers.

The comments follow VNLOK's decision last week to summon Meta to court, a move SBC News reports as the first time a gambling trade body has pursued legal action against a major technology company. Fuchs had earlier told delegates at the SBC Summit in Lisbon that "now is the time for Meta to uphold their responsibility."

Fuchs said licensed Dutch operators remain bound by strict legal obligations while unregulated websites exploit the same platforms unchecked. He argued that gamblers drawn to illegal sites carry a higher risk profile, with Dutch society and consumers ultimately bearing the consequences.

The intervention comes against a backdrop of declining channelisation in the Netherlands since its regulated online market opened in 2021. SBC News cites 2025 figures putting the channelisation rate at 49%, down from 57% in 2024 and 66% in 2023, well below the roughly 90% that European regulators typically target.

Fuchs has previously cautioned that excessive regulation could itself undermine the licensed market, a point of ongoing debate in Dutch political circles. The Netherlands applies a 37.8% tax on gross gaming revenue alongside tight marketing rules and duty-of-care requirements, factors SBC News notes are likely contributing to consumers drifting toward unlicensed platforms.

Fuchs suggested that much of the Dutch public struggles to distinguish licensed from unlicensed operators, and questioned whether that distinction is even a priority for consumers. He pointed to research from the Responsible Affiliates Quality Mark (KVA) showing Dutch searches for terms such as "casino without limits" or "casino without KYC" exceed one million a month, which he said indicates active consumer demand for unregulated sites.

VNLOK is not alone in pressing social platforms over the issue. The UK's Betting and Gaming Council wrote an open letter to social media companies in June urging them to remove illegal gambling adverts, while the European Gaming and Betting Association has called for tougher enforcement across EU states under the Digital Services Act.

Some movement has emerged elsewhere. Nordic operator Paf said at the SBC Summit that it has agreed a pilot project with Meta involving the sharing of licence documents and URLs to help identify black market activity, and Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy has committed to working with Meta and TikTok on a crackdown this week.

Fuchs described these efforts as experimental and potentially slow-moving, but said the underlying fix is straightforward: operators should only be able to target audiences in jurisdictions where they hold a valid licence, checked against each market's official list of approved operators.