A Dutch investigation has found that major generative AI assistants can direct consumers towards online casinos that do not hold a licence from the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), with some systems even presenting unlicensed operators as legal or regulator-approved.
The research was carried out by XY Legal Solutions between August and September 2026 and tested 10 widely used AI and conversational search platforms: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Anthropic Claude, xAI Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral Le Chat and Meta AI. Researchers used Dutch-language prompts designed to reflect realistic consumer searches.
The tests covered three scenarios: general questions about the best online casinos in the Netherlands, requests for casinos operating without Cruks, and queries presented as academic research. Cruks is the Netherlands’ central gambling self-exclusion register and licensed online operators are required to check players against it.
All 10 AI systems named at least one operator without a Dutch licence during the testing. Eight did so through neutral or leading questions that did not use an academic-research justification. Mistral Le Chat, Google AI Mode, DeepSeek and Grok supplied unlicensed operator names after the first relevant prompt. Across 79 recorded conversations, 33 contained at least one reference to an unlicensed gambling operator.
The study identified a more serious problem with Microsoft Copilot, Mistral Le Chat and Google Gemini, which at times presented unlicensed operators in a way that suggested they were legal or licensed. Copilot produced a list described as containing legal casinos while including brands without KSA licences and incorrectly indicating that the listed operators were connected to both the regulator and Cruks.
Some AI responses also described features of unlicensed casinos as advantages, including larger bonuses, faster withdrawals, the absence of identity verification and the ability to gamble without Cruks checks. Other platforms took a more cautious approach by providing warnings, referring users to KSA enforcement information or initially refusing to list specific sites. However, researchers found that some refusals could be overcome by repeating or reframing the request.
The report noted that AI-generated answers are not deterministic and described its sample as indicative rather than a complete assessment of every possible response. Licence status was checked against the KSA register as of 1 September 2026 and rechecked later that month.
The findings add to wider concerns in the Netherlands about digital platforms exposing consumers to illegal gambling. Dutch trade association VNLOK has taken legal action against Meta over alleged illegal gambling advertising on Facebook and Instagram, following earlier research that identified thousands of adverts linked to unlicensed gambling activity targeting Dutch users.