Dutch Gambling Authority Examines Risky Player Behaviors
The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has released a study analyzing risky gambling patterns, shifting focus from solely large losses to a broader range of indicators. This research will enable the KSA and licensees to identify potentially harmful gambling behaviors more effectively.

Five Pillars of Risky Gambling
The study by the KSA examined five key areas of player behavior. These included intensity, loss of control, increased gambling, operator conduct, and game characteristics.
The loss of control data also included specific information about young people, which was relevant to recent actions against seven operators for advertising breaches targeting younger audiences.
The KSA emphasized that focusing on average values is not useful, as problematic gambling is often characterized by extreme behavior on specific days, rather than consistent patterns.
Nighttime Gambling as a Risk Indicator
The KSA study revealed that playing at night is a significant indicator of potentially risky gambling. Data showed that players are more than twice as likely to engage in casino games at night compared to sports betting.
This is particularly important when monitoring individuals who have already shown signs of problem gambling.
Additionally, placing sports bets at night can also be a sign of risky behavior, as it is less common and deviates more from typical patterns.
Future Research and Analysis
The KSA plans to conduct further research into these findings. Future projects will analyze differences between house vs player-to-player games, various verticals, and different types of sports, competitions, and even specific bets.
The KSA excluded players with a low probability of being at-risk, defined as those who gamble less than five days and lose less than €300 ($311.90) per month, to focus on the most harmful gambling behaviors.
The KSA noted, “A final lesson was that mean values are not very helpful. Problematic gambling is often characterised by outliers on certain days, not by the behaviour on an average day.”