Despite growth in the first half of the year, the new Dutch gambling tax makes Holland Casino "vulnerable."

Holland Casino is still "under financial pressure" since taxes are higher, even if business is up in H1.
Tax on gaming at Holland Casino
Ruud Bergervoet, the CFO of Holland Casino, claimed that the proposed rise in gambling tax in the Netherlands puts the land-based operator in a "vulnerable" position, even if it has seen growth every year since the beginning of 2025.

The Dutch tax on gaming is going up in two steps. On January 1, 2025, the first rise, from 30.5% of total gaming income to 34.2%, went into effect. This will go back up to 37.8% of GGR on January 1, 2026.

Holland Casino already went through the first surge in the first half of 2025. Bergervoet, on the other hand, was worried about how the secondary increase may affect the operator.

He pointed out that the 37.8% rate would have lowered its profit for H1 if it had been in effect. At the current rate of 34.2%, this cost an extra €13.5 million in H1.

Bergervoet added, "The financial pressure is still high, especially with the planned second increase in gaming tax in 2026." "If the rate had been 37.8% already, we would have made a profit of €1.1 million in the first half of the year, or lost €5.5 million if we hadn't had the one-time revenue from sales."

"This shows how weak we are, even after all we've done so far."

Holland Casino gains by selling two properties.
The sale of two properties was the one-time income Bergervoet was talking about. Holland Casino made €8.7 million by selling a location in Zandvoort and €2.7 million by selling its old casino in Groningen.

The operator reported that this double transaction made them an extra €6.6 million in profit.

Holland Casino claimed that its overall performance in the first half of the year was somewhat lower than the same time last year, with revenues of €390.9 million. Sales in stores went up a little, but sales online went down.

Visits to land-based casinos went up 0.7% to 2.6 million over the half, and the average amount spent per visit also went up a little.

But new rules to safeguard players that went into effect last October hurt online sales.

Players can no longer deposit more than €700 in a single month. For people between the ages of 18 and 25, the maximum is lower at €300.

Holland Casino was able to cut its operational costs by €30.1 million. This happened because of focused savings, like reorganising the company's main headquarters.

As a result, the profit before corporation tax was €14.2 million. This was a big improvement from last year's deficit of €3.5 million, thanks to the sales of properties and cost-cutting initiatives.

The first tax increase made a €200 million hole.
The idea behind the tax increase was to bring in more money for the government, but this hasn't happened yet.

In August, the Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad said that the Licensed Dutch Online Gambling Providers trade association had numbers that showed that total gaming revenue in H1 would be down 25% from the same time last year.

Because of this, the Kansspelautoriteit tax revenue will be 83% of what it was in the same period in 2024. This happened even though the tax rate went up in January of this year.

The Ministry of Finance said in September, when the tax hike was authorised, that it planned to bring in an extra €200 million a year from 2025 to 2028.