Dutch regulator KSA pushes for EU-wide action against illegal online gambling

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) is again arguing that Dutch-only enforcement is not enough to deal with illegal betting networks that operate across borders. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks working around high-risk gambling, the practical message is simple: local fines and local investigations do not match the way these operators actually move.

1. Michel Groothuizen, president of the KSA, published a blog post after taking part in the annual debate on gambling regulation in the Dutch House of Representatives. His core point was that illegal operators are often part of global criminal networks, frequently based in jurisdictions outside the reach of European authorities.
2. Groothuizen said the parliamentary discussion did include some practical ideas, including proposals that would allow the KSA to use fake identities to test compliance failures at unlicensed operators. But he argued that lawmakers missed the bigger issue: “our international power.” In his words, “we are fighting a global network of relentless criminal organizations with neighborhood police officers, when in fact we should be using an international investigative service.”
3. The KSA fined Novatech €24.8 million in March 2026, but Groothuizen said penalties like that have limited reach. He noted that tens-of-millions-euro fines are, relatively speaking, only a fraction of what illegal operators would owe in taxes if they were legal.
4. He also pointed to the collection problem. According to Groothuizen, these operators change their legal wrappers faster than they appear, and even when authorities know who they are and where they are located, they often end up established in Comoros or elsewhere beyond the long arm of the law. The result, he said, is that there is not much actual fine collection.
5. Groothuizen warned that the Dutch parliament’s lack of focus on the international dimension will affect policy making. In his view, it means the ministry will only work on EU rules sporadically, squeezed between other parliamentary priorities. He added that illegal providers have long operated across borders, with international financial flows and social media advertising forming part of their setup, and that real impact requires power at the European level.

The timing matters because the Dutch government is already discussing a broad ban on gambling advertising in the country. For regulated operators and their payment partners, that combination usually means tighter local pressure on the legal market while the illegal side keeps using the same cross-border infrastructure.