The Netherlands flooded with illegal gambling sites: alarming number of searches!
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13 Aug 2025 •
Reading time: 2 minutes The number of searches for illegal online casinos from the Netherlands has risen sharply in the past six months. In March 2025, the number was still at one million searches per month. The latest report from the Keurmerk Verantwoorde Affiliates (KVA) states that this has now risen to 1.7 million.
The figures come from an ongoing study by the KVA. In it, the organisation analyses search traffic via Google to websites of illegal providers and their affiliates.
Organic search traffic increases due to stricter advertising rules
According to the KVA, marketing budgets of illegal providers are shifting from advertising to organic traffic. Google is increasingly blocking advertisements from unlicensed gambling sites. As a result, these parties are focusing on findability via search engines.
The growth may therefore be due to stricter enforcement by Google. The sites are now focusing more on SEO in order to attract visitors.
Steven Vrolijk of the KVA calls this development worrying. He says it is necessary to continue sharing this data. This will enable governments and regulators to take more effective action.
Well-known sites such as Lalabet and Bitcoinmagazine are growing rapidly
In the report, the KVA mentions several websites that have grown significantly. The biggest climber is Bitcoinmagazine, which attracted 94,600 visitors from the Netherlands in March. That number has now tripled to 312,300.
Lalabet is the most visited illegal online casino. It previously attracted 68,100 visitors per month via Google. That number has now risen to 124,000. Qbet and Starzino also saw a significant increase in visitor numbers.
Other names mentioned in the report are Onefootball and Indiatimes. They publish links to illegal providers. Casinojager and De Krant Nieuws are also mentioned. De Krant regularly publishes articles with terms such as “Casino Without Cruks”.
Some sites lose traffic but remain active
Not all illegal providers saw an increase. For example, traffic to Bruno Casino fell from 48,300 to 26,900 visitors per month. BetSixy and B7 Casino also received fewer visitors, although the declines were limited.
Nevertheless, the general trend remains clear: more Dutch people are actively searching for illegal gambling sites. This poses a problem for legal providers and regulators such as the Kansspelautoriteit.
The report was compiled using data from Semrush, a well-known SEO analysis tool. The Alliance for Combating Illegal Online Gambling in the Netherlands is working with the KVA to tackle these developments.