The Dutch online gambling market is in the middle of the most consequential overhaul any EU jurisdiction has put its iGaming sector through since regulated launch. Five years after the Remote Gambling Act (Wet kansspelen op afstand, KOA) went live in October 2021, the Netherlands has tightened deposit limits, raised the gross gaming revenue tax twice, banned untargeted advertising and sports sponsorships, and queued up all 30 active remote licences to expire and be re-awarded in 2026 under a new policy framework. For the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the country’s gambling regulator, the goal is simple: protect consumers and pull money back from the black market. For payment processors, banks, and crypto-adjacent operators servicing the sector, the practical consequences are far more interesting — and far less discussed.
For a snapshot of the brands actually courting Dutch players inside this changing landscape, this Latintimes guide breaks down the operators, bonus structures, and payment methods on offer in 2026. What we’re looking at here is the layer underneath: the financial-regulatory plumbing that decides which operators stay viable, which payment rails win, and where Dutch money is actually flowing.
The Deposit-Limit Architecture That Reset the Market
Since 1 October 2024, every KOA-licensed operator has had to enforce a layered deposit-control scheme. Players over 25 face a soft check at €350 monthly net deposits and a hard block at €700; for young adults aged 18–24, those thresholds drop to €150 and €300 respectively. To deposit above the cap, a player must demonstrate financial capacity — operators are obligated to verify “recreational spendable” income and run an explicit duty-of-care intervention. Risk signals must be detected within one hour. All stakes must display in euros, not points or tokens.
The market impact has been measurable. Average loss per player account has reportedly fallen from €117 to €83, and gross gaming revenue at legal operators is down roughly 10% since the limits took effect. The KSA’s own analysis suggests a channelisation rate of around 91% of players using legal sites — but only about 50% of money spent. In other words, half of all Dutch online gambling spend is still flowing to unlicensed operators, who advertise via offshore affiliates and route deposits through international payment processors that sit outside the KSA’s direct enforcement reach.
For fintechs operating in the legal channel, that has created a familiar tension: more compliance overhead, lower revenue per user, and a regulator increasingly willing to lean on payment service providers and ISPs to disrupt the illegal supply chain.
Why Payment Rails Have Become the Real Battleground
Dutch consumers prefer iDEAL for almost everything online, and online gambling is no exception. iDEAL routes a payment directly through the player’s bank, which means it sits inside the regulated banking perimeter — the operator must be KOA-licensed for a Dutch bank to permit a gambling-coded transaction, and AML/CDD checks fire on the bank side. SEPA Instant transfers play a similar role for higher-value deposits. Card schemes (Visa, Mastercard) and e-wallets like Skrill and Neteller fill the gap, but the Dutch AML Act prohibits the use of virtual currencies for gambling at licensed operators. That last point matters: any Dutch site that accepts Bitcoin or stablecoin deposits is, by definition, operating outside the KOA framework.
This is where the Netherlands diverges sharply from markets like Curaçao or Malta. The KSA has been explicit that affiliates and influencers fall under operator liability, that payment service providers facilitating illegal supply are now a direct enforcement target, and that the central database backing every licensed game must be physically hosted in the Netherlands. The plumbing is the policy. As our look at how UK gambling duty changes will reshape the online gaming industry noted in a different context, when regulators move on tax and infrastructure simultaneously, operators tend to respond by reshuffling product mix and payment options before they reshuffle markets.
The 2026 Licensing Reboot
The 30 remote gambling licences awarded in the first KOA wave were issued for five years. They begin expiring through 2026, and the KSA has published a new set of policy rules — the Beleidsregels vergunningverlening kansspelen op afstand 2026 — that replaces the 2023 framework as of 1 January 2026. Existing licensees must re-apply under the new rules, which fold in tighter duty-of-care expectations, integrated CRUKS (the national self-exclusion register) reporting, and stricter affiliate-monitoring obligations. The non-refundable application fee remains €48,000 with a €50,000 financial security deposit, but the compliance bar around player-protection systems and the mandatory addiction-prevention officer has risen materially.
On the fiscal side, the gambling tax on gross gaming revenue rose from 30.5% to 34.2% on 1 January 2025, with a further increase to 37.8% scheduled for 1 January 2026. Add the 1.95% levy and the operational cost of the new deposit-limit checks, and the all-in cost of running a compliant Dutch iGaming operation has climbed sharply — even as the deposit limits cut average revenue per player.
What’s Likely Coming Next
State-secretary-level proposals tabled in 2025 went further still. The headline items: raising the minimum age for high-risk products like online slots from 18 to 21, introducing an overarching cross-operator deposit limit (so a player can’t just open accounts at five sites to multiply their cap), and a mandatory financial capability test for anyone wanting to lift their personal limit. None of this is in force yet, and a change of government has slowed the legislative timeline. But the direction of travel is clear: the Netherlands intends to set the European benchmark for what a tightly supervised, fintech-mediated online gambling market looks like.
The question that flows from that is structural. If 50% of money spent is still leaving the regulated channel despite all of these measures, the policy fix is either more enforcement against payment intermediaries (the KSA’s current path) or a re-think of how restrictive the legal market should be in the first place. For everyone building inside it — operators, affiliates, KYC vendors, payment gateways — the next eighteen months will decide which side of that line the market settles on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Online gambling has been legal since 1 October 2021 under the Remote Gambling Act (KOA), provided the operator holds a licence from the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA). At the time of writing, around 30 remote gambling licences are active, all of which expire and must be re-awarded under the new 2026 policy framework.
Since October 2024, KOA licensees must enforce monthly net-deposit thresholds: a soft check at €350 for players aged 25+ and €150 for those aged 18–24, with hard blocks at €700 and €300 respectively. Exceeding the cap requires the operator to verify the player’s recreational spendable income.
No. The Dutch Anti-Money Laundering Act (Wwft) prohibits virtual currencies as a payment method at KOA-licensed operators. Any Dutch-facing site accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum, or stablecoin deposits is operating outside the KSA framework — which carries real consequences for both operator and intermediary payment providers.
Why did the Netherlands raise gambling tax twice in two years?
Disclaimer
This article provides analysis of regulatory and market developments for informational purposes only. It is not financial or legal advice. Online gambling involves risk; readers must comply with their local laws and engage in responsible play. If gambling is causing harm, free, confidential support is available via BeGambleAware.org or by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.
