Netherlands to Target the Broader Illegal Gambling Ecosystem per KSA’s 2026 Agenda

The Dutch Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit/KSA) has published its agenda for the new year, outlining plans to double down on its efforts against the black market and continue to shield players from harm.

KSA to Target the Broader Illegal Gambling Ecosystem

In its new agenda, the KSA outlined a few core goals for 2026, which include combating illegal gambling, protecting vulnerable players from harm, ensuring licensees follow the Netherlands’ social responsibility requirements, monitoring advertising, and making sure that operators comply with the Act for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (WWFT).

The first of these core pillars of KSA’s agenda will see the regulator tackle the entire illegal gambling infrastructure and not only the illegal operators themselves. As a result, the Dutch regulator will seek collaboration with payment service providers, hosting providers and social media companies to tackle illegal gambling operators and providers alike. The goal will be to frustrate and disrupt the ecosystem permitting the existence of illegal gambling.

This comes amid broader criticism toward companies supporting illegal gaming ecosystems, such as payment providers processing payments for offshore operators, hosting service providers, and social media platforms promoting such products.

In the meantime, the authority said that it will tighten the supervision of the Netherlands’ social responsibility (duty of care) requirements, which aligns with the government’s vision to give player protection a greater role.

KSA Fined ComeOn for Social Responsibility Violations

In other news, the KSA recently renewed its action against licensees that violate its rules by issuing a fine to ComeOn’s parent company, Tulipa Ent Limited. While ComeOn is a fully licensed and legal firm, the KSA understood that the operator had violated the Netherlands’ social responsibility requirements.

In its release, the KSA clarified that it investigated 10 separate player accounts, which had incurred significant losses in the period from December 2023 to September 2024. To make matters worse, the accounts in question were held by young adults, who are generally considered to be an impressionable and vulnerable audience.

While the KSA did not disclose how much the players lost, it said that the sums were in the thousands and happened in a short period of time.

As a result, the KSA handed a fine of EUR 750,000 ($874,300) to the operator.