As of today, former football players or other famous Dutch people may no longer be used for gambling advertisements. This measure is intended to combat gambling addiction among young adults and vulnerable people. It is the first adjustment of the advertising rules since the opening of the online gambling market in October of last year. In the Netherlands, relatively many young adults have an account with a gambling site. About 17 percent of the accounts are created by people between the ages of 18 and 24. This age group makes up 11 percent of the population.
While the online gambling market has opened up in the Netherlands, TOTO and Holland Casino decide in overdrive to buy advertising time to make Dutch citizens addicted to gambling with hip and slick commercials. Quite apart from the perverse idea that both companies are state-owned, it cannot be explained that advertising for other addiction-prone elements such as smoking and alcohol is out of the question, but that gambling in casinos or betting on sports competitions (with all excesses as match fixing) is fully promoted around well-watched television programmes.