Dutch Gambling Regulator Imposes Record €37 Million

The Netherlands’ gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has issued its largest penalty to date, imposing a €37 million fine on EOD Code SRL for operating twelve unlicensed online casinos targeting Dutch players. The fine, announced on Thursday, surpasses the regulator’s previous record penalty and signals a continued escalation in enforcement against illegal operators in the Dutch market.

According to the KSA, EOD Code SRL offered online gambling to consumers in the Netherlands without holding the required licence under the Remote Gambling Act. The company operated a portfolio of twelve online casinos, all of which were accessible to Dutch players in breach of national gambling legislation.

A notable feature of the case is the role of cryptocurrency. Reports indicate that the operator facilitated payments through digital currencies, an approach that can complicate enforcement and make transactions more difficult to trace. The KSA has previously identified crypto-based payment structures as a growing concern in unlicensed gambling operations.

The size of the fine reflects the regulator’s penalty framework, under which sanctions for unlicensed operators are scaled to turnover when revenues exceed defined thresholds. Operators generating turnover above €15 million may face fines amounting to a percentage of that turnover, which in this case produced a substantially higher penalty than in prior enforcement actions.

A Pattern of Rising Penalties

The €37 million fine marks a new high point in a sequence of increasingly severe sanctions. In March 2026, the KSA imposed a then-record fine of approximately €25 million on Curaçao-licensed operator Novatech for offering games of chance through its qbet.com and 55bet.com brands without a Dutch licence. Earlier enforcement included a €19.7 million fine against Malta-based Gammix Limited in 2024, which was at the time the largest penalty the regulator had issued.

KSA Chair Michel Groothuizen has emphasized publicly that the regulator intends to act firmly against illegal providers. The escalating fine levels suggest that turnover-based penalty calculations are now being applied consistently to large-scale unlicensed operators.