Five of the ten operators that opened the regulated Dutch online gambling market in October 2021 have been granted new five-year licences by the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), with all five announcements landing inside a single week.

Fair Play Online, TOTO Online, Kansino, Holland Casino Online and Bingoal will each hold a remote gambling licence running from 1 October 2026 for five years. Their existing licences expire on 30 September 2026.

Fair Play Online, operated by FPO Nederland B.V., announced its new licence on 4 August. Nederlandse Loterij confirmed a new licence for TOTO Online the following day, with Play North Limited announcing the same outcome for Kansino at almost the same time. Holland Casino Online followed on 6 August, and Bingoal became the fifth on the same day.

A new application, not an extension

Licences issued under the Remote Gambling Act (Kansspelen op afstand, or KOA) run for a maximum of five years and cannot be rolled over. The KSA states plainly that extension is not possible: an operator whose licence is expiring has to file a fresh application and prove compliance again from the start.

The regulator opened a dedicated follow-up application procedure in the Koa-portaal on 1 December 2025, in line with new licensing policy rules that took effect on 1 January 2026. The KSA’s register of licensees, the Kansspelwijzer, remains the only official record of who currently holds a permit. It does not show who has applied.

Where each 2021 licensee stands

The overview below is compiled from the Intikkertje status table. Every licence holder name and start date matches the KSA’s own announcement of 29 September 2021, which named the ten companies cleared to trade from 1 October that year.

Brand(s)	Licence holder	Start date	End date	Status
Holland Casino Online	Holland Casino N.V.	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	New five-year licence granted
TOTO, TOTO Sport, TOTO Casino, Winnitt	TOTO Online B.V.	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	New five-year licence granted
Kansino	Play North Limited	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	New five-year licence granted
Fair Play Online	FPO Nederland B.V.	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	New five-year licence granted
Bingoal	Bingoal Nederland B.V.	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	New five-year licence granted
GGPoker	NSUS Malta Limited	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	Application filed, no public decision
bet365	Hillside (New Media Malta) Plc	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	No public decision
BetCity	Betent B.V.	1 October 2021	1 October 2026	No public decision
JACKS.NL	JOI Gaming Limited	20 November 2021	20 November 2026	No public decision

 

Two points of detail. The KSA register records end dates as the first day the licence no longer runs, so a permit logged as ending on 1 October 2026 has 30 September 2026 as its last trading day, which is the date operators use in their own statements. And JOI Gaming was not part of the first ten. The KSA granted it a separate licence on 20 November 2021, making JACKS.NL the eleventh licensed brand in the market and putting its renewal seven weeks behind the rest.

The table also shows who is missing. Tombola International Malta Plc and LiveScore Malta Limited held two of the original ten licences and handed them back in late 2024, tombola in October and LiveScore Bet in November. LiveScore Bet cited the planned increase in Dutch gambling tax as its main reason for leaving.

What the follow-up procedure requires

The 2026 rules add work for incumbents rather than simply re-stamping an existing file. Follow-up applicants face a reassessment of their player protection measures and their advertising and marketing policies, plus a fresh integration test with the control database (CDB).

Every applicant must also submit an exit plan. The document has to set out how the operator would wind down its offering if a licence ends, covering the legal, financial, organisational, technical and communication steps involved, with particular attention to paying out customer balances. Operators are separately required to explain how they will keep the regulator informed of material changes to policy or business operations.

The requirement was introduced with the 2026 renewal round in view, and it applies to new entrants as well as to the operators that have been in the market since day one. Dutch compliance obligations have tightened steadily since launch, as tracked in our 2025 European iGaming compliance review.

Holland Casino frames it as continuity

Holland Casino, which is state-owned, treated the decision as confirmation of its position in the online market. Chief executive Petra de Ruiter said in the company’s announcement, made in Dutch:

“We are proud that we have again been given the confidence to continue our online offering for the next five years. Since the online gambling market opened in 2021 we have committed to a safe and responsible offering. With this new licence we can continue that mission and keep investing in an attractive legal offering for Dutch players.”

The company said the licence lets it keep operating inside the Dutch permit system for another five years, and that it will continue working with the KSA and government on player protection and on making the legal offering an alternative to unregulated sites.

Who is still waiting

GGPoker is the only remaining first-cohort operator whose application is confirmed as filed, with the KSA decision not yet public. For bet365, BetCity and JACKS.NL, neither an application nor a decision has been published. ZEbet, licensed after the opening cohort, is also reported to face a renewal decision in the second half of 2026.

For operators, the calendar is the pressure point. A licence that expires on 30 September leaves no margin for a decision that slips, and the exit plan requirement means every applicant has already had to write down what an unsuccessful outcome would look like in practice. The Dutch market is one of the more heavily supervised in Western Europe, with a national self-exclusion register, deposit limit rules and tight advertising restrictions already in force.

The next weeks will show whether the KSA clears the remaining first-cohort applications before the September deadline, and whether any 2021 licensee decides the renewed compliance load is not worth a second five-year term. Further regulatory developments are expected as later KOA licences approach expiry.

 

 

 

Source: Kansspelautoriteit | theigaming