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The Netherlands Gambling Authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), says 2026 will be about squeezing the illegal market and tightening player safeguards inside the legal one.
In its newly published Supervisory Agenda 2026, the KSA lays out five areas it plans to put extra weight behind this year, while warning that fast-moving tech, including AI, and the persistence of illegal offers are making oversight harder, not easier.
Stronger action against illegal operators, and the plumbing that keeps them running
The KSA’s top goal is to keep at least 90% of players with legal operators, while cutting down the money illegal sites earn from Dutch customers.
To do that, the regulator says it will spend more time going after the “infrastructure” behind illegal online gambling, the parts that help these sites stay reachable and visible, including payment providers, hosting firms and social media platforms, alongside cooperation with domestic and international regulators.
The agenda also takes a closer look at tools under the EU’s Digital Services Act to fight illegal gambling content online, and points to added attention on B2B suppliers that provide games to unlicensed operators.
On the land-based side, the KSA says it wants better visibility into where gambling machines end up after events like bankruptcies, to stop equipment from drifting into the illegal circuit.
Minors and young adults in the crosshairs
The regulator’s second big priority is reducing how often minors and 18–24-year-olds encounter gambling, and how often they gamble.
The KSA says it is seeing minors reach both legal and illegal sites. In the legal market often through accounts belonging to adults they know, while illegal operators may have weak age checks or none at all.
The authority is also running research using data from the national control database to better understand young adults’ gambling behaviour at licensed operators, with the results expected to inform further protective steps in 2026.
A wider consumer information site, Open over Gokken, is set to launch in the first months of 2026, alongside continued awareness campaigns tied to self-exclusion.
Duty of care: more scrutiny on affordability checks and faster interventions
The KSA is also making clear it wants licensed operators to react earlier when play starts to look risky.
The 2026 agenda says the regulator will keep pressing operators on duty-of-care obligations, including how they apply play limits, how quickly they analyse behaviour, and how quickly they intervene once risk signals appear.
The KSA adds that it will publish guidance on using AI and monitoring tools by operators, and will finalise work started in late 2025 on Cruks-related notifications and required personal contact, including recommendations for the market and checks on compliance.
Advertising: role-model ban stays front and centre
On marketing, the regulator says it wants fewer breaches and less exposure for vulnerable groups.
The agenda repeats that the ban on using role models in online gambling advertising remains a core enforcement target, and explicitly includes influencers and streamers.
It also points to the ban on untargeted online advertising and says the KSA will move quickly when operators cross the line, while keeping an eye on how hybrid operators separate online and land-based promotion in sports sponsorship contexts.
AML oversight expands as new rules arrive
Finally, the KSA says it will tighten supervision of compliance with the Dutch AML regime (Wwft), continuing risk-based checks on online operators and Holland Casino, covering areas like risk assessments, customer due diligence, reporting unusual transactions and record keeping.
The authority says additional AML changes in 2026 will expand its remit to more parties and add responsibilities such as supervision of financial sanctions and the cash limit, alongside new guidance and more operator outreach.
Source: Sigma World
