A Dutch quality mark for gambling affiliates, the Keurmerk Verantwoorde Affiliates (KVA), is warning that popular AI chatbots can steer people in the Netherlands towards illegal online gambling sites. According to Emerce, the KVA is renewing that warning now that eight American states have started legal action against OpenAI over alleged safety risks in ChatGPT.
What happened
Emerce reports that the KVA is using the American lawsuits to bring attention back to its own research into how reliable AI systems are. That research was published on 30 September. It found that widely used AI tools can expose Dutch consumers to illegal online gambling, and that minors could also run into trouble as a result.
The KVA tested ten popular AI tools, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. All ten named gambling operators without a Dutch licence in response to relatively simple questions. In eight of the ten, this happened after neutral or leading questions of the kind an ordinary consumer might ask.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT named unlicensed operators in all three of the question series the researchers used. Emerce reports that three systems went further. Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Mistral Le Chat presented operators without a Dutch licence as legal, or as licensed by the Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa), the Dutch gambling regulator.
Steven Vrolijk, a representative of the KVA, said the American cases were a reason to highlight the Dutch findings again. In Emerce’s report, translated from Dutch, he said: “The discussion about AI safety is not only happening in the United States. Our research shows that Dutch consumers also face risks when they rely on information from AI systems. If a chatbot presents an illegal online casino as a legal operator, that can give consumers a completely wrong picture. Within a regulated sector such as online gambling in particular, that is worrying.”
The KVA is calling on AI developers to handle information about licences and operators more carefully. It says AI systems should check the legal status of online casinos against official sources, such as the Kansspelautoriteit’s licence register.
Why it matters if you live in Netherlands
Online gambling in the Netherlands is regulated, and only operators with a licence from the Kansspelautoriteit may legally offer it to people here. Many internationals are used to different rules from their home country, and an operator that is legal elsewhere may not hold a Dutch licence. If you ask an AI chatbot to recommend a casino or betting site, the KVA’s research suggests the answer may include sites that are not allowed to serve Dutch customers.
The bigger concern in the research is not only that unlicensed sites appear in answers, but that some chatbots described them as legal or Ksa-licensed. A user who trusts that answer may believe they are using a regulated service when they are not.
That has practical consequences. In related coverage, Emerce reports that problems with paying out winnings have become the main complaint about illegal gambling sites, with Dutch players who end up at illegal online casinos increasingly struggling to get their money.
For parents, the KVA’s point that minors can also be affected is worth noting. Teenagers who use AI assistants for homework or everyday questions could be shown gambling sites through the same tools.
The simplest step the source points to is the one the KVA recommends for AI developers: check the Kansspelautoriteit’s licence register yourself before signing up with any gambling site, rather than relying on what a chatbot says.
What to watch next
The KVA’s call is aimed at AI developers, and it is not yet clear from the Emerce report whether OpenAI, Google, Microsoft or Mistral have responded or plan to change how their tools handle gambling questions. Any move to link chatbot answers to official licence registers would be the clearest sign that the warning has been heard.
The lawsuits brought by eight American states against OpenAI will also shape the wider debate on AI safety, and the KVA is clearly trying to connect that debate to the Dutch market.
Pressure on platforms over illegal gambling is coming from several directions. Emerce has also reported that the Dutch trade association VNLOK has summoned Meta to court in Amsterdam over the large-scale spread of illegal gambling adverts on Facebook and Instagram, and that an analysis by SIDN, the organisation that runs the .nl domain, found the .nl domain is increasingly being misused for illegal and misleading gambling activity. Taken together, these stories suggest that search engines, social media and now AI tools will face more questions about how they handle gambling content aimed at people in the Netherlands.
Source: Emerce
Sources
- Emerce: Keurmerk waarschuwt voor illegale goksites Nederland in AI-tools, accessed 16 October 2026
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