A new person has joined the Dutch gambling authority’s board of directors, as Wiebe Ruttenberg has been appointed by the State Secretary for Justice and Security.
Ruttenberg will be in charge of digital transformation on the board at a significant time for Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), as it continues to clamp down on illegal gambling websites operating in the Dutch iGaming market while also expanding its knowledge on AI and crypto.
Commenting on Ruttenberg’s appointment, Michel Groothuizen, Chair of the KSA, stated: “I’m pleased with Wiebe’s arrival as a member of the Executive Board, responsible for Digital Transformation.
“The rise of illegal gambling sites, cryptocurrencies, and AI applications are just a few examples that require the KSA to continue evolving into a data-driven and risk-driven organisation, with an innovative toolkit that allows it to tackle illegal providers in new ways.
“A key challenge in this regard is establishing collaborative relationships with public and private parties, including those within the financial sector.”
Ruttenberg will assist the KSA in combating the illegal market by utilising his financial business experience to build such connections.
He has previously served as a Board Advisor at Bunq and SecAlliance, a Guest Lecturer in Operational & Cyber Resilience at the European University Institute, a Programme Director for Cyber Resilience Strategy at the European Central Bank and various positions at De Nederlandsche Bank and the Ministry of Finance.
Groothuizen noted: “I’m pleased that Wiebe, with his extensive knowledge of and experience with the financial sector, technological innovation, and European decision-making, brings the external perspective the KSA needs in this area.”
Tackling illegal operators
Tackling illegal gambling operators was one of five key themes in the KSA’s supervisory agenda for 2026, announced earlier this year, alongside protecting vulnerable groups, supervising the duty of care, supervising advertising and supervising compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wwft).
The Dutch market is in the midst of tightening its regulatory framework, with the Netherlands’ coalition government (D66, VVD and CDA) recently proposing to strengthen online operators’ duty of care, exploring limiting the number of online operator licences and implementing a ban on online gambling advertising.
While it shares the government’s desire to improve protections, the Dutch gambling trade body Vergunde Nederlandse Online Kansspelaanbieders (VNLOK) believes a different approach is needed.
Björn Fuchs, Chair of VNLOK, said: “Dutch gambling policy is deliberately designed around an open, regulated market with strict requirements for duty of care, advertising and oversight.
“This system only works if the legal, safe offering remains visible to the player. A total ban on advertising undermines precisely that principle.”
Groothuizen warned that the ad ban and limiting the number of online operator licences are counterproductive and ‘unhelpful’ to its intended goal,
The KSA Chair referenced the current untargeted advertising ban for online operators and how the advertising market has shifted to social media, but is predominantly populated by illegal operators, adding that a complete online advertising ban would result in only illegal operators having an advertising presence online.
He said: “Our people will do everything in their power to combat illegal advertising as well, but under the current circumstances, we cannot be 100% successful. We may be able to enforce greater responsibility on tech companies through the Digital Services Act, but that will be a long-term process.
“The illegal parties will pay little attention to this, and as long as large tech companies continue to allow these advertisements or do not actively remove them on their own initiative, the only consequence of this ban announced in the coalition agreement will be that players will be lured away from the legal market even more than now.
“After all, they will then only encounter illegal providers online. That does not seem to me to be the intended goal of the new cabinet.”
