Cruks outage? The Ksa details operators’ obligations

Caroline B.

• 14 Feb 2026 • Reading time: 3 minutes

The Ksa has just clarified the protocols for accessing online gambling platforms during technical malfunctions of the national Cruks register.

The gaming industry in the Netherlands has recently faced major technical challenges, particularly during European soccer evenings when the massive influx of bettors caused service interruptions on the Cruks (Centraal Register Uitsluiting Kansspelen) registry. 

Faced with uncertainty among operators fearing penalties for failure to systematically verify, the Kansspelautoriteit provided crucial clarification via the specialist media outlet CasinoNieuws.nl. This legal clarification removes any doubt about the application of Article 4.18 of the Remote Gambling Decree.

The fundamental distinction between registration and login

The Ksa’s analysis is based on a semantic and technical distinction between two types of users. On the one hand, registration concerns new customers wishing to create an account. On the other hand, login concerns players who already have an active account.

During periods when the Cruks registry is not functioning properly, online casino operators are strictly prohibited from accepting new registrations. As long as exclusion checks cannot be carried out reliably, no new accounts should be validated. 

For players who were already identified and verified before the outage, flexibility is required. The Ksa believes that denying access to all existing players on the pretext of a central bug would be a disproportionate measure, as it is statistically unlikely that the entire database would suddenly be entered in the exclusion register during the outage.

The legal framework of Article 4.18

The rules are dictated by Article 4.18 of the Remote Gambling Decree. This text provides for a specific exemption allowing licensees to bypass immediate consultation of the register in the event of a proven technical failure of the Cruks system itself. 

However, this tolerance comes with three major obligations for the operator:

• Immediate notification: The operator must immediately notify the Ksa board of directors of the existence of the failure and its operational consequences.
• Retrospective check: As soon as the Cruks service is restored, the casino must immediately verify all players who logged in during the interruption.
• Immediate expulsion: If a player who accessed the site during the outage is found to be registered in the Cruks register, the operator must terminate their session immediately.

Different application depending on the gaming medium

It is interesting to note that the guidelines vary slightly between the online sector and physical establishments (land-based casinos and slot machine halls). 

The following table summarizes access rights in the event of an outage originating from the Cruks register:

For physical establishments, the Ksa is more flexible, even allowing new visitors to enter during an outage, provided that checks are carried out as soon as the incident is over. This difference can be explained by the nature of identity checks at the entrance to buildings, which are considered more straightforward than digital verification processes.

Responsibility and origin of the outage

The Ksa emphasizes an essential technical point: the exemption provided for in Article 4.18 only applies if the failure originates from the Cruks system itself.

If the inability to consult the register is due to a technical problem specific to the casino’s servers or its technological intermediaries, no tolerance is granted. In this case, the operator must close its doors, whether real or virtual, to all users until its own bug has been resolved.

Some operators have chosen to remain closed during recent failures, either out of an excess of caution or because they are unaware of this regulatory subtlety. The regulator specifies that it is up to each company to check the official status of the service on the dedicated website (Cruksregister.nl/status) before deciding whether or not to continue operations. Casinos retain the right to apply a stricter policy than the law and to refuse access as a security measure.