Higher gambling tax drives players to illegal sites: Gaming1 director reacts
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14 Mar 2026 •
Reading time: 2 minutes
An extreme hike in the Dutch gambling tax is costing the treasury millions and driving players en masse to the black market. Gaming1 CEO Emmanuel Mewissen is now issuing a stark warning to Belgian politicians against a similar disaster scenario.
The Dutch government thought it could fill the state treasury with an extreme increase in gambling tax, but it is shooting itself in the foot. In 2025, the regulated sector generated no less than €43.5 million less, while the black market is larger than the legal circuit for the first time. A horror scenario that Gaming1 top executive Emmanuel Mewissen is using as a stark warning for Belgian politics.
Dutch treasury bleeds millions due to greedy tax policy
To properly understand the current crisis, we must look back at the decisions of the Dutch government. In their hunt for more state revenue, they have rapidly increased the tax on online gambling. At the beginning of 2025, the levy already rose from 30.5% to 34.2%, and in January 2026, the absolute pain threshold of 37.8% was reached.
The government was already counting its riches, but recent figures from trade association VNLOK show a painful counterproductive effect: total tax revenues from the legal gambling sector took a hit of €43.5 million in 2025, falling from €322 million (2024) to barely €288 million.
Black market overtakes the legal circuit for the first time
The cause of this financial crater? Affected players simply no longer accept these passed-on costs and are voting with their wallets.
For the first time in history, the black market is larger than the regulated circuit. In the first half of 2025, no less than €617 million disappeared to illegal offshore casinos, compared to €600 million in the legal market.
This massive flight abroad is extremely dangerous: if you play on these unregulated sites, you lose every form of consumer protection and have nowhere to turn in the event of a conflict.
Gaming1 CEO warns Belgium about this disaster scenario
These dramatic figures sound like a loud alarm for Belgian regulators.
Emmanuel Mewissen, CEO of Gaming1, emphasizes the devastating side effect of this fiscal stranglehold. Not only do players flee to unsafe places, but local employment and digital innovation are also disappearing abroad at a rapid pace.
Sports clubs are also sharing in these hard blows. In the Netherlands, every percentage point of tax increase directly costs local sports organizations €2.5 million in lost support. All of this forms a crystal-clear warning for the Belgian government, as excessive taxation eventually threatens to destroy the entire legal sector.