The Dutch Gaming Authority, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has provided further details on some payments requirements of incoming changes to the country’s gambling laws.
From 1 October – exactly three years after the Dutch betting market was relaunched under the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) Act – the new provisions will establish a player protection scheme. Central to this will be mandatory checks and deposit limits.
Players over 25 will have a deposit limit of €350 per month, while players under 25 will be subject to a €150 limit. The scheme sets a maximum deposit threshold of €700 for players over 25, and a €300 limit for those under 25.
If players exceed the net deposit limit when making a deposit, the KSA expects providers to block further deposits from the player for the remainder of the calendar month. Duty-of-care obligations mean operators must track customer deposits to ensure that mandatory checks are applied when deposits reach €350 and €150 per month, respectively.
For Bettors who want to deposit more than €700, operators must carry out a full duty-of-care check on the customer’s financial well-being, exposure to harm, and whether they are gambling excessively. Operators may allow customers to wager above the deposit limit, but only if it is responsible within the duty-of-care framework and all other legal obligations are met.
The scheme allows customers to request a single deposit above the €700 threshold, which must be verified through a full duty-of-care check. By setting deposit limits and controls, operators can decide whether the player should be permitted to wager above this limit.
Operators can limit a customer’s deposit and loss limit to €700 if they have concerns about the player’s behaviour or financial well-being. The regulator added that operators do not need to investigate a player’s financial capacity themselves but must block deposits once a threshold has been reached.
The conversation in the Netherlands around problem gambling and KYC within the industry mirrors developments in the UK. On the other side of the North Sea, there has been an extensive debate about the impact and scope of affordability checks, mandated in the country’s 2023 Gambling Act review as ‘finance risk checks’.
In the UK, Open Banking may play a role in facilitating affordability checks via data sharing. In the Netherlands, the KSA has updated operators on the data aspects of affordability, stating that operators must decide how and which data to use when carrying out checks.
Operators have been advised to refer to the rules of the Dutch Data Protection Authority when assessing customers’ financial well-being.
KSA’s update also clarified that new pop-up warnings during games of chance should be used to alert customers about their behaviour and spending. However, these warnings should not be considered a substitute for proper duty-of-care checks.
In the second half of the year, KSA, under its new Chairman Michel Groothuizen, will report to the Netherlands Ministry of Justice. In his first address as Chairman, Groothuizen supported the introduction of deposit limits as a necessary protection in the KOA market.
Groothuizen is in direct discussions with the new State Secretary, Teun Struycken, to grant KSA additional supervisory powers to tackle illegal gambling.
As he oversees the next phase of KOA changes, Groothuizen acknowledged the challenges in regulating online gambling. He aims to strengthen KSA’s collaboration with other Dutch authorities on healthcare and addiction to fully understand the impact of gambling harm and to design a comprehensive duty-of-care scheme for the market.
