Operators in the Netherlands iGaming market will soon be subject to higher costs if they wish to renew their licence or make changes to their offerings, due to new regulations from the Netherlands’ State Secretary for Justice and Security, Arno Rutte.
Taking effect from 1 April and based on an indexation of 2021 rates, the fee for a new online gambling licence will rise from €48,000 to €61,300. The fee to make changes to an existing licence will also rise from €8,000 to €10,200.
The Government Gazette noted that the reason behind these changes is to cover the costs of running the Dutch gambling authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), 83.5% going towards personnel costs, while 16.5% will go towards material expenses.
“Due to wage and price increases and the associated indexation, the fees associated with processing such applications are being adjusted,” stated the Government Gazette.
“The costs associated with processing an application for a gambling license remain covered by the fee adjustment.”
Online casinos that first joined the regulated market when it first launched will see their licences expire at the end of this year, meaning those stakeholders will be subject to the higher fees should they wish to apply for another licence.
Other listed gambling licence changes include non-incidental gambling increasing from €28,000 to €35,800, while large incidental games of chance (total prize pool > €500,000) will rise from €24,000 to €30,600.
Increases to licence fees will also follow on from the introduction of a higher tax rate on the Dutch market over the past two years, which rose to 37.8% at the start of this year, up from 34.2% the previous year and 30.5% the year before that.
Earlier this week, the KSA announced its supervisory agenda for 2026, outlining five key themes for the year ahead: tackling illegal gambling operators, protecting vulnerable groups, supervising the duty of care, supervising advertising and supervising compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wwft).
