A new national partnership has been introduced in the Netherlands to help with the earlier detection and prevention of gambling harm, creating a more effective and well-organised approach.
Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands gambling authority, is providing close to €2m to the Early Detection of Gambling Harm Partnership (SVSG), which includes the Trimbos Institute, the Dutch Association of Addiction Specialists (VKN), the Municipal Health Service (GGD GHOR Netherlands) and the Dutch Debt Assistance Route (NSR).
Detecting gambling harm earlier
With the subsidy provided by the Addiction Prevention Fund, the organisations involved in the partnership will collaborate with addiction treatment institutions, municipalities and peer support groups from several fields such as social services and debt.
Together, they will develop more efficient ways to tackle gambling harm by sharing knowledge from across regions, strengthening relations between local practices, national partners and knowledge institutions, as well as creating a common working method for professionals and further developing national guidelines, training courses and e-learning.
The KSA stated that approximately 209,000 people are at high risk of gambling addiction in the Netherlands, but only a small proportion seek treatment, resulting in many people receiving help too late or not at all.
“Many organisations have been working hard for years to reduce gambling harm, but often in isolation,” commented Michel Groothuizen, Chair of the KSA.
“With this partnership, we permanently bring together knowledge, healthcare, debt counselling, and local partners. This makes it easier to find help, and players can get the support they need more quickly. This is an important step towards better consumer protection.”
The introduction of the SVSG follows the KSA stating, back in September, that the current risk analysis system in the regulations is “not functioning optimally”, and incurs high costs but brings little additional protection for players.
A report published by the KSA – Study report on risk analyses of games offered by licensed online gambling operators – examined the risk analysis of game offerings operators take to calculate the level of risk and to meet duty of care standards to prevent gambling addiction.
2026 targets
The SVSG is targeting pilot programmes in five municipalities in early 2026, with local core teams, regional Attention Officers from VKN, and project leaders from the NSR working together to identify and refer gambling problems at an earlier stage. In this phase, existing training programmes and materials will be supplemented with new knowledge.
Training will also be given to professionals and learning professionals to make them aware of gambling problems, know how to recognise signs of gambling harm and refer clients, with an online environment being created as well to share knowledge and experiences.
In 2027, the outreach of the SVSG will be spread to at least 15 municipalities.
