The Netherlands’ Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, KSA) will introduce new rules for remote gambling licences starting 1 January 2026.
Preparing for Licence Renewals
The revisions come ahead of the expiry of the first five-year licences, which were granted in September 2021 and will end in October 2026. To prepare for renewals, the KSA has added new obligations for applicants.
Stricter Application Requirements
Operators must now submit documentation explaining how they will keep the regulator informed of major business or policy changes. In addition, applicants need to file an “exit plan” that outlines how they would phase out operations if their licence is not renewed.
For existing licence holders, the renewal process will include a special reassessment. This involves a review of player protection standards, advertising policies, and a new integration test for the control database (CDB). Operators will also need to explain past breaches and show how they corrected them.
If the KSA is not convinced by the evidence, it can add extra conditions or reject the renewal altogether.
Reliability and Compliance Checks
The regulator also stressed that operators ignoring enforceable court rulings will fail the reliability test and risk rejection. Moreover, every applicant must provide a risk analysis under the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (WWFT).
Recently, Unibet received a KSA penalty order of up to €450,000 ($524,000) for breaching bonus advertising rules, showing how strictly the authority enforces compliance.
