KSA issues account-closure guidance as Dutch market moves into follow-on licence era

The Kansspelautoriteit granted the first eight follow-on licences on 17 September 2026 and published formal guidance on account closures on 23 September 2026. The licences are valid from October 2026 through September 2031; the guidance responds to KSA findings that some licensed operators were not applying existing rules on how players can close accounts.

By Eleanor Whitfield, Regulatory Affairs Correspondent.

What the KSA's account-closure guidance requires

The KSA's new guidance makes a simple operational demand: players must be able to close their accounts "as easily as possible" when they request to do so. The regulator identified practices that create barriers to closure and set out clear prohibitions and obligations for licence holders.

Operators may not condition account closure on a prior contact with customer service. If a player chooses to contact customer service or uses a chat function to request closure, the operator must not use that interaction to attempt to persuade the player to continue using the service. The KSA found that such interventions were being used in practice to retain customers rather than to respect their request to exit.

The guidance also clarifies how operators must treat any remaining balance on a closed account. The KSA requires that the remaining balance be paid to the player without unnecessary delay and without imposing conditions. Operators cannot charge a fee specifically for closing an account; the KSA made that point in a prior statement in April 2026.

That April 2026 position remains part of the regulator's stance: fees that operate as a barrier to leaving a platform are not permitted. The guidance does allow for other, legitimate fees under defined circumstances — for example account-management fees, payment-processing fees, or fees linked to particular payment methods — but only where those fees are communicated clearly and unambiguously before the player enters into the relevant arrangement.

How this affects platform design and player journeys

Compliance requires more than a clause in terms and conditions. The KSA expects the closure mechanism to be genuinely accessible in the live player journey and not buried behind extra steps or transfer paths that might deter or delay a closing request.

Concretely, operators will need to review front-end flows: account settings, self-service dashboards, chat widgets and customer-service scripts. Back-office processes must ensure timely settlement of balances and an audit trail demonstrating that closures were processed without undue friction or persuasion. These technical and procedural changes affect product teams, payments operations and compliance functions.

Operators should also document any fees they apply for account maintenance or payments and ensure pricing is presented before account creation or before the relevant transaction. The KSA will view unclear or retroactive fee disclosure as inconsistent with the guidance.

The broader regulatory context in the Netherlands

The update arrives as the Dutch online market enters a new licence cycle. The first remote gambling licences were issued in 2021 and expired in late September 2026. On 17 September 2026 the Kansspelautoriteit issued the first eight follow-on licences valid from October 2026 through September 2031.

For the follow-on process the KSA said it explicitly considered definitive violations recorded during the previous five years. Applicants were required to explain remedial measures they had taken to correct past breaches and to prevent recurrence. The regulator described this approach as part of its assessment when awarding the follow-on licences.

The KSA has signalled a shift from the market formation phase that followed 2021 licensing to a more standardised regulatory regime. The authority expects a normalized and stable market, with licences continuing to carry conduct, consumer-protection and compliance obligations.

Practical steps operators should take now

Operators and platform vendors should treat the guidance as an operational compliance deadline rather than mere guidance. Immediate tasks include:

1. Reviewing the account-closure flow to remove any mandatory step requiring a customer-service contact.

2. Updating chat and customer-service scripts to prohibit retention-led persuasion when a closure request is made.

3. Ensuring payout workflows return remaining balances without delay and without additional conditions.

4. Verifying that any account-management, payment-processing or payment-method fees are disclosed up front and are legitimately connected to a service the player agreed to.

Payments teams in particular will need to map all settlement pathways to confirm timing and to produce audit evidence. Product teams should implement clear UI text and prompts so a player can identify and use the closure option without unnecessary navigation.

What the KSA flagged and why it matters for compliance

The regulator's review found licensed operators applying practices that could deter players from leaving a platform. Those practices included conditional closure procedures and the use of customer-service interactions to retain players who had expressed an intention to exit. The KSA described the new guidance as removing ambiguity about acceptable closure handling.

For licence holders, the guidance ties into the KSA's more exacting approach to follow-on licences, where prior definitive violations in the past five years were taken into account. Licence-holders who needed to show corrective measures during their follow-on assessment will now be judged against explicit operational expectations on account closure.

Where to find more information

Operators seeking to align their procedures with the KSA's guidance should review their terms and their live player interfaces and coordinate across compliance, payments and customer-care teams. For regulatory coverage and implementation guidance see the regulation and b2b sections for analysis and vendor options.

The combination of the KSA's clarification on account closures, its April 2026 statement on closure fees, and the issuance of follow-on licences on 17 September 2026 sets a clearer operational baseline for the Dutch market for the period October 2026–September 2031.