Five Operators Secure New Five-Year Dutch Gambling Licences as Relicensing Cycle Begins

Five online gambling operators have secured new five-year licences in the Netherlands, marking the beginning of the country’s first major relicensing cycle since its regulated online gambling market opened in 2021.

Fair Play Online and Kansino have joined TOTO Online, Holland Casino Online and Bingoal in confirming that they have received new licences. The permits will take effect on October 1 and remain valid until 2031.

The first licences granted when the Dutch regulated online gambling market launched on October 1, 2021, will expire on September 30 after completing their maximum five-year term. Operators that already hold licences cannot simply renew or extend their existing permits. Instead, they are required to submit fresh applications to the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch Gambling Authority, for new licences.

The five approvals offer an early indication that established operators continue to regard the Netherlands as an important market, despite the significantly more demanding commercial and regulatory environment compared with the conditions that existed when the regulated market first opened.

However, several operators that were part of the original group of licensees had not publicly confirmed new licences as of August 11. These include bet365, BetCity and GGPoker. Additional licensing decisions are therefore expected ahead of the September 30 expiry deadline.

The KSA strengthened its licensing requirements at the start of 2026 in preparation for the relicensing process. Existing operators are now subject to renewed assessments covering areas such as player protection, advertising practices and compliance with regulatory requirements. The authority can also take an operator’s previous enforcement record and supervisory history into account when deciding whether to issue a new licence.

Operators that failed to meet regulatory requirements during their initial licensing period must demonstrate what they have learned from those shortcomings and explain what measures they will introduce to prevent similar problems from occurring again.

The regulator has the authority to reject an application where it considers the operator’s response insufficient. It can also grant a licence while imposing additional conditions or restrictions if it believes such measures are necessary.

Applicants face further requirements as part of the new process. They must submit an exit plan setting out how their operations and customer balances would be handled if their licence were to end. They must also provide a new risk assessment addressing anti-money laundering requirements.

The relicensing process is taking place at a challenging time for the Dutch regulated online gambling sector. The gambling tax rate rose to 37.8% at the beginning of 2026, following an earlier increase to 34.2% in 2025.

At the same time, restrictions on gambling advertising have become progressively stricter since the regulated market opened. The ban on gambling companies sponsoring sports came fully into effect in July 2025, further limiting the ways in which licensed operators can promote their brands.

The KSA reported in April that revenue generated by legal online gambling had stagnated and was approximately 18% lower in 2025 than in the previous year.

Despite these challenges, around 91% of Dutch online gamblers are estimated to use licensed operators exclusively. However, the regulator estimates that the legal sector accounts for only 53% of total online gambling revenue.

This gap indicates that consumers who use unlicensed operators are, on average, losing substantially more money than those who gamble through regulated websites. It has also intensified concerns about whether licensed operators can compete effectively with offshore gambling companies that operate outside the Dutch regulatory framework.

The first five licence renewals nevertheless suggest that established operators continue to see sufficient commercial value in the Dutch market to remain active despite increased taxation and tighter regulatory obligations.

The decisions still pending for other operators from the original licensing group will offer a clearer picture of how widely that confidence is shared and how many of the market’s original participants intend to continue operating in the Netherlands under the new regulatory regime.

By fLEXI tEAM