Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands Gambling Authority, will begin its review of online gambling licence applications on April 1, 2022, after the expiration of its ‘cooling-off’ period.
The review period began from July 1, 2019, and was implemented by the Senate following a discussion of the Remote Gambling Bill (KOA), where it was decided that a distinction needed to be made between firms which illegally offered online games of chance, and those who did not.
Since October 1, 2021, the Dutch market for online games of chance has been open with an initial ten operators given licences to offer online gambling products.
European firms including Flutter, Kindred and Betsson were among the Tier-1 operators who previously failed to meet ‘cooling-off’ demands, forcing them into costly adjustments.
There are now set to be a number of changes introduced from the April 1 end date, including the expiration of the regulation of Article 3.8 of the policy rules for the granting of licences.
The KSA will now ‘give more weight’ to operators offering illegal online games, including those up to eight years ago.
The application module in the portal (part B16) will be changed, while companies must check whether the requested information is provided correctly when applying on or after the designated date.