It started with small wins. Then everything went faster. Gambling a little every day and thinking you’re being smart. Until you lose everything.
The British gambling sector is facing another significant intervention. The government is considering increasing license fees for gambling operators by 30%. The goal is not to generate profit, but to fund the battle against illegal gambling.
A hidden economy of more than €80 billion. That is the estimate of what circulates annually in illegal online gambling within Europe. For the first time, regulators from Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Britain, among others, are jointly sounding the alarm.
The contrast could hardly be greater. While Tipico proudly announced that it has joined the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), in Germany the lawsuits are piling up. More than six thousand players are claiming money back, and criticism of the gambling company is growing.
The tone has been set in The Hague, the Netherlands. While Belgium is openly investigating and tightening ties between politics and the gambling industry, the Netherlands is lagging behind. MP Mirjam Bikker received zero response when she asked for a plenary debate on contacts between the government and the gambling sector.
The urge is gone, but peace does not return. People who quit gambling often come up against a wall of emotions and physical symptoms. The withdrawal is real – even without drugs or alcohol.
An artistic event became an unintended stage for online casinos. It has emerged that the website of the Haagse School Dag was misused by hackers.
They seem like harmless platforms for gamers. But behind the scenes, illegal gambling links are increasingly popping up. The world of gambling affiliates is dark and cunning. They buy sites to fill them with illegal gambling offers.
The Finnish government is implementing a radical change of course. The long period of monopoly on gambling in Finland will make way for a licensed market.
The Portuguese national gaming authority has ordered the crypto prediction market Polymarket to cease its activities in the country.
The winds of change are blowing through gambling supervision in both the Netherlands and Belgium. Two regulatory authorities are making a conscious choice to deploy more expertise and manpower to better protect players.
The Kansspelautoriteit in the Netherlands is taking a hard line. In 2026, the regulator is setting its sights on illegal gambling providers and the protection of young people.
In the world of offshore casinos, dodging fines is child’s play. By using volatile legal structures that they liquidate at the slightest sanction, they make recovery impossible and continue their activities with impunity.
Gambling companies are disappearing from Belgian professional football but are gaining ground in the amateur leagues.
The legal gambling market is under pressure, while the illegal one is growing. Dutch State Secretary Arno Rutte is worried. Heavy gamblers, in particular, are seeking refuge outside the licensed offer.
No age verification, no license, but betting with autoplay was fully available. For thousands of Dutch people, it was child’s play to gamble on banned sites. Now, the foreign gambling company Starscream Limited is being presented with the bill: a fine of over 4.2 million euros.
They lost thousands of euros in just a few clicks. Young adults were given free rein to keep gambling at ComeOn casino. The Kansspelautoriteit is now intervening and imposing a fine of 750,000 euros.
