What is attached to a KSA licence, and what falls away without one

Duty of care and player limits

A licence holder has a duty of care: it must keep an eye on its players' playing behaviour, intervene at signs of immoderate play, and give players the opportunity to set limits themselves on their playing time and their stakes. It must also have an addiction prevention policy that meets requirements, and staff who know what to do when a signal goes off.

Without a Dutch licence none of that is compulsory. Some operators offer limits of their own accord, and that is to be commended, but it is then a service and not a right. A service can be arranged differently by the operator tomorrow. At a licence holder that cannot happen, because behind it stands a regulator that can enforce it.

Advertising rules

For licence holders there are restrictions on advertising that have become steadily stricter in recent years: no untargeted advertising, no use of role models, restrictions on who may be approached and how. Here too the point holds: those rules bind the licence holder, and nobody else.

That explains part of what you come across online. Advertising that would not be allowed in the Netherlands from a licence holder you do come across at operators that fall outside the system — including more aggressive bonus offers and more insistent phrasing. This site does not join in with that; what we are paid by the partner is set out on about us and the link itself is marked as advertising.

Supervision that can act in the Netherlands

The last and perhaps most important item on the list is the dullest. A licence holder is under the supervision of a body that is established in the Netherlands, communicates in Dutch, and has means to act against an operator that does not abide by the rules.

At an operator outside the register that address is a foreign body: for four operators in this overview the Curaçao regulator, for three the Anjouan Gaming Board, for one an older Curaçao system, and for two operators no body at all is recorded in our data. What each of those routes is worth in practice and which steps are in it is set out under where a dispute ends up.

Gambling tax: a difference people do not see coming

There is one more difference that has little to do with protection and much to do with administration, and that is often missed precisely for that reason.

In the Netherlands it is arranged who pays the gambling tax for games of chance, and that is not the same party in all cases. With an online operator licensed in the Netherlands it is the operator. With an operator that falls outside the Dutch system, that responsibility shifts to the player, who has to declare it themselves. That is a structural difference unconnected to the question of whether an operator is trustworthy — it is purely about who files the return.

What the current rates are and how the return works out in a specific case is deliberately not stated here. This site invents no percentages and gives no tax advice; anyone who has to deal with this looks it up at the Belastingdienst, the Dutch tax administration, or puts it to somebody who understands it. The reason it is nevertheless mentioned here is that it is a direct consequence of the same question this whole site is about: is the operator in the register or not.

What is not in the package

For the sake of fairness, the other side as well, because a list of obligations quickly reads like an advertising brochure for the licensed offering.

A Dutch licence guarantees no payout speed. It guarantees no smooth customer service, no wide game selection and no favourable bonus terms. It says nothing about whether you will enjoy yourself or lose money — the latter is the expected value in gambling, regardless of who issued the licence.

What it does do is lay a floor: a number of things you can rely on, with a body behind them that can enforce in the Netherlands. If the licence is missing, that floor is missing, and what remains is whatever is in the operator's general terms and conditions. And that is exactly what this site reads, with the clause number alongside — see how we read the register.