Dutch KSA Renews First 8 Online Licenses Through 2031

The Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit or KSA) has formally announced the renewal of its first eight remote gambling licenses under the Remote Gambling Act (Wet kansspelen op afstand – KOA). The five-year licenses, effective from October 1, 2026, through to September 30, 2031, mark the first major re-licensing cycle since the regulated Dutch online market launched in October 2021.

The announcements follow statements from KSA Chairman Michel Groothuizen said the Netherlands needs Europe’s help to fight illegal gambling, calling for unified European regulatory cooperation to combat black-market operators as the domestic market faces heightened tax burdens and tightening operational restrictions.

The eight license holders are TOTO Online, which also runs Winnitt, Holland Casino Online, Play North with Kansino, FPO Nederland with FairPlay Casino, Bingoal, bet365 through its Maltese company Hillside, NSUS Malta for GGPoker and Betent for Betcity.

Past Breaches Now Count Against You

This was not a formality. The KSA’s own guidance is blunt: when a license runs out, “Verlengen is niet mogelijk”, meaning extending it is not possible. Existing operators have to apply for a new one through a separate procedure.

What’s new this time is that the KSA looked explicitly at every confirmed breach from the past five years. Operators had to explain what they’d done to fix those breaches and how they’d stop them happening again. Based on that review, the regulator gave some of them “additional points of attention”. The announcement doesn’t say which operators got them, only that all eight met the requirements.

What Operators Had to Hand Over

The rules for this round changed on January 1, 2026. Every applicant now has to file an exit plan showing how it would wind down its games if the license ended, plus an anti-money laundering risk analysis under the Dutch Wwft. The KSA also re-checked each operator’s addiction prevention and advertising policy, and reran an integration test on its control database, known as the CDB.

Ignoring a Dutch court judgment is now a problem too. The KSA’s rules say an operator that hasn’t complied with a final or enforceable Dutch ruling doesn’t have reliability “beyond doubt”, and that’s grounds to refuse a license.

The Fine Print in Each License

The license decisions themselves, published as PDFs, were made over six weeks. Five were signed off on July 30, while bet365 and GGPoker followed on September 8 and Betcity on September 10.

Every one of the eight carries the same extra condition: fix any shortcomings in the CDB within three months of the KSA flagging them. The regulator explains why in each decision. License holders are sometimes slow to repair their databases, and the KSA calls that undesirable because it needs the CDB in order to supervise them.

Court Rulings and Payouts

Each license also obliges the operator to carry out Dutch court judgments without delay. The decisions say that means rulings on duties such as handing over player data, paying out winnings and refunding losses. For players, that matters. A ruling in your favor isn’t just a court order, it’s a condition of the operator’s license.

The licenses aren’t identical. Kansino and FairPlay Casino are cleared only for casino games played against the house. GGPoker covers casino games but no sports betting, while bet365 and Bingoal hold all four categories, horse racing included.

A Flat Market With a Big Buyer

Betcity is the one with a price tag attached. Entain completed its purchase of Betent, which trades as Betcity, in January 2023, when it said the brand held about 20% of the Dutch market. Entain put the expected total cost at €450m. The renewal keeps that asset licensed until 2031, and its license covers sports betting alongside casino games.

The market these operators are staying in has stopped growing. The KSA’s spring 2026 monitoring report put licensed gross gaming revenue at €602m for the second half of 2025, about €100m a month and roughly 18% below 2024. About 91% of Dutch gamblers play only with licensed sites, but measured by money the figure is just 53%.

Eight Down

The KSA counted 31 online license holders in December 2025, and 27 of them were actually operating. Eight of those names now have licenses that run to 2031.