VNLOK Takes Meta to Court Over Illegal Gambling Ads in the Netherlands

VNLOK has formally served Meta with a summons. The Dutch unified gambling trade body is taking the tech giant to court over what it says is a failure to stop illegal gambling advertising from reaching Dutch audiences. Chairman Björn Fuchs confirmed the action at the Gaming in Spain Conference in Madrid, which pushes the dispute past a long run of complaints and into formal proceedings.

The case rests on research commissioned from Game Changer. That study found 79% of advertisements identified in a sample came from unlicensed operators. Meta's ad database is enormous, so researchers narrowed their focus to 10 main keywords. Fuchs told delegates the methodology held up. He called the findings "just the tip of the iceberg," and said the more troubling part was simpler than any statistic: illegal ads weren't being removed by Facebook.

That 79% figure covers only the advertisements identified within the research sample. It says nothing about Meta's entire ad inventory. VNLOK argues the results show two things at once, how visible unlicensed operators are and how weak Meta's response has been.

Repeated complaints, according to Fuchs, produced no meaningful change. Illegal ads also don't stay up long enough for retrospective takedowns to matter. "These ads are only live for a day or day and a half," he said. "So having a system where somebody can complain in hindsight and Facebook takes the ad down doesn't work. So the system is flawed."

Fuchs framed the fight as part of a wider European struggle against the black market. He compared regulated markets to a football match in which Real Madrid trailed AS Roma 3–1. "Like Real, we're three one down and on the back foot, but we must fight and comeback," he told the Madrid audience. European gambling, he said, shares a common concern about the encroaching threat of illegal operators and what follows from it.

A first court hearing is expected in late December. Substantive proceedings should follow in the first quarter of 2027. Taking on a company with Meta's legal resources could turn into a drawn-out battle, Fuchs warned. "At this point, it's still waiting to see which legal trick they are going to use," he said. "They've got a quite big bag of tricks."

Questions about VNLOK's motivation came up too. Licensed operators are losing revenue to illegal competitors, yes, but Fuchs framed the challenge as a broader push for accountability over the promotion of unlicensed gambling and what it means for consumer protection. Illegal operators keep reaching Dutch audiences while licensed businesses face mounting political scrutiny over how the regulated market is performing. "Gambling has no friends in politics," Fuchs said. "We should take the fight to Meta, and of course this journey can legally push us into the next ice age."

Even so, VNLOK believes the action sends a necessary message to policymakers and gambling stakeholders well beyond the Netherlands. "The signal that we want to give towards society and towards politicians, but also to other countries, is to pick up that fight, because if you wait for Meta to move, it might be too late," Fuchs said.

Expect the fallout to reach across European jurisdictions, adding pressure for a coordinated response to illegal gambling advertising. The lawsuit itself stays focused on the Dutch market, though talks with European counterparts and government bodies are already under way. Fuchs envisions legal developments in countries such as Germany and France helping speed up stronger measures across Europe. The responsibility to protect audiences, as he puts it, has "no national borders."