Dutch gambling regulator sets out requirements for licence renewals
The current Dutch online gambling licences will expire on January 1, 2026.
The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) is to amend its Remote Gambling Licensing Policy Rules as it prepares to open licence renewal applications for the Netherlands’ online gambling market. The current five-year Dutch online gambling licences granted in September 2021 will expire on October 1, 2026, and the regulator has set out the criteria for renewal.
The amended policy rules impose new obligations on all applicants, but primarily provide guidance on the process for applying for a follow-up licence. New rules include a requirement for applications to include a document explaining how providers plan to inform the KSA in a timely manner about important changes to their policies and operations.
Applicants must also now include an exit plan explaining how they will wind down their gaming offerings when a licence expires. Another addition focuses on reliability: if providers have not complied with final or provisionally enforceable court rulings at the time of their application, their reliability is not beyond doubt. Since this constitutes grounds for refusing a licence renewal, such providers must submit a risk analysis against the criteria of Dutch anti-money laundering legislation, the Wwft.
A separate application procedure applies to applications for a follow-up licence by parties already active on the market. In this procedure, various aspects will be reassessed, including the addiction prevention policy and the recruitment and advertising policy. A new integration test will be conducted for the control database (CDB) component.
“When opening the online market, the legislature deliberately opted to issue permits with a maximum term of five years,” the KSA said. “By using a fixed-term permit, the legislature intended that the KSA would consider supervisory experience gained in each application for a subsequent permit. Providers who have made mistakes in the past five years must explain during the application process how they have learned from previous mistakes and how they intend to prevent recurrence.
“If the KSA finds this explanation insufficient, the permit may be denied or additional conditions and restrictions may be imposed”.
The Dutch regulated online gambling market launched in October 2021. The subsequent five years have seen a series of measures introduced to tighten conditions on the market, including deposit limits, a ban on untargeted gambling advertising and, from July of this year, a ban on gambling sponsorship in sports.
Operators have also faced a rise in gambling tax, with another rise scheduled for next year. Meanwhile, there are proposals for more reforms on the table, including rising the minimum age for online casino gambling to 21. However, the timescale for further measures is in doubt following the resignation of legal protections secretary Teun Struycken ahead of an upcoming general election in October.
