Compliance Updates
KSA: Monitoring report autumn 2025: turnaround in market development, concerns about illegal share
Reading Time: 2 minutes
The growth of the legal online gambling market appears to be stagnating, but the illegal market continues to grow. This turnaround in the legal market is partly due to the positive effects of measures introduced a year ago to protect players. This is according to the Dutch Gaming Authority (Ksa) in its autumn 2025 monitoring report. Although the number of players is still increasing, the gross gaming result (GSR) of the legal market is lagging behind.
The gross gaming result (GSR, stakes minus prizes paid out) for the first half of 2025 is €600 million. Six months earlier, it was 16% higher, at €697 million. This is partly due to the introduction of new rules to better protect players, which also include a deposit limit.
Number of players and accounts
The number of accounts played on a monthly basis has increased: in the second half of 2024, this averaged 1.18 million accounts. In the first half of 2025, this number rose to 1.29 million. On average, 7.1% of the accounts are new. More new accounts are likely being created because, with the implementation of the new rules at the end of 2024, players will be able to deposit less per account monthly without sharing their income data with the provider.
A player can have multiple accounts, so the number of accounts doesn’t equal the number of people gambling. It’s estimated that in the first six months of 2025, there were 839,000 active players with legal providers. This means that 5.7% of the adult population gambled legally online during those months. That’s slightly more than the previous six months, when that percentage was 5.4%.
Loss
The average player’s monthly losses have decreased substantially since the implementation of the protective measures. While the average loss per player was €146 per month at the end of 2024, it has dropped to €119 per month by the beginning of 2025. This takes into account the fact that players play with multiple providers and may not be active every month.
Young adults (ages 18 to 24) played with 23 percent of the accounts used in the first half of 2025. This is relatively high, as they represent only 9.3% of the adult population. They do lose less money per account on average than adult players, namely €37 per month compared to €78 for adults. Compared to the total player population, young adults also engage in relatively more sports betting.
Illegal market
The channeling in terms of players (the percentage of people gambling with legal providers) is stable: approximately 94% gamble exclusively legally. The channeling in terms of BSR (the amount of total gambled money going to illegal providers) has shown a slight downward trend that continued in the first half of 2025: from 51% at the end of 2024 to 49% at the beginning of 2025. This downward trend may be explained by players shifting to illegal offerings due to the new player protection regulations, where these perceived restrictive rules do not apply. The Ksa considers this a worrying development, as players in the illegal market are much less well protected.
Source: kansspelautoriteit.nl
The post KSA: Monitoring report autumn 2025: turnaround in market development, concerns about illegal share appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Armenia accelerated one of the most aggressive gambling regulatory reforms in Eurasia after approving new measures to control digital platforms, advertising, payments and financial supervision across the betting sector. The strategy promoted by the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan aims to strengthen legal gambling operations, increase fiscal oversight and tighten control over offshore operators in a market that has expanded dramatically over the past decade.
The reform is being driven by the Ministry of Finance of Armenia led in 2026 by Vahe Hovhannisyan, together with the State Revenue Committee headed by Rustam Badasyan. The main political architect behind the changes is MP Hayk Sargsyan from the ruling Civil Contract party.
The core of the reform focuses on payments and financial monitoring. Armenia plans to block transfers to unlicensed gambling operators, strengthen AML/KYC requirements and connect licensed platforms directly to state monitoring systems operating in real time. Armenia is advancing the software operator selection for its centralised gaming monitoring center, following the legal framework established in early 2024 to connect platforms directly to state systems in real time.
The 2026 update focuses on accelerating the public tender for the private operator, rather than the initial creation of the monitoring infrastructure, with the State Revenue Committee (SRC) leading the technological implementation. The fiscal framework is also becoming stricter. Since July 1, 2025, Armenia has applied a 10% turnover tax on gambling operations, while online gaming license costs doubled in April 2025 and are scheduled to continue increasing annually through 2028.
According to official figures cited by lawmakers, Armenia’s gambling turnover reached approximately AMD 6.3 trillion in 2023, equivalent to nearly €14 billion, while online casino deposits climbed to AMD 811 billion during 2024.
The government also tightened gambling advertising restrictions, limiting promotions to luxury hotels, border checkpoints and authorised operator channels. Armenian authorities argue that the new regulatory model is designed to protect legal operators, reinforce financial traceability and modernise state supervision over one of Eurasia’s fastest-growing digital industries.
The post Armenia Launches Sweeping Gambling Payment Reform appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has officially extended the deadline for licensed remote operators to implement Phase 2 of the new deposit limit regulations.
In October 2025 the first phase of improvements to tools that help consumers to manage their gambling were introduced in the Remote Technical Standards (RTS) with the second phase due to be introduced on 30 June 2026.
Following stakeholder feedback, the Commission has extended the implementation period of the second phase to the end of September 2026 to allow for further operator technical development time.
From 30 September 2026 operators must:
• offer gross deposit limits to customers, and in some cases re-introduce gross deposit limits to the options available to customers
• name gross deposit limits as “deposit limits” – only this type of limit can be called a “deposit limit”
• offer gross deposit limits with at least equal prominence as other types of financial limit.
“We have also updated our consultation response document to clarify that to ensure consistency across the industry, from 30 September 2026 only gross deposit limits must be offered over fixed time frames. Rolling and fixed time frames can be used for other limit types,” the UKGC said.
“In preparation for implementation operators are asked to refer to the Remote Gambling and Software Technical Standards: Consultation Response and linked annex for the RTS 12 in full effective from 30 September 2026.
“All operators are advised that an annex initially published alongside the supplementary consultation response on 7 October 2025 contained small errors and was temporarily removed from our website. Any downloaded or offline versions of the Annex saved prior to 22 May 2026 should be disregarded.”
The post UKGC Extends Phase 2 Deposit Limit Regulation Deadline to September 2026 appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Coljuegos has officially authorized MrYoker as Colombia’s newest regulated online sports betting and casino operator.
It is estimated that, over the next 5 years, the new operator will obtain revenues close to $2.83 billion.
Through concession contract C2261 of 2026, Coljuegos authorized the entry into operation of the portal www.mryoker.co, a site where sports betting and online games can be carried out legally and monitored by the entity.
The online gaming sector is experiencing one of its best periods, thanks to the industry revitalization strategy implemented during the current administration. With MrYoker, there are now 15 authorized operators in Colombia.
The new portal belongs to the company Global Vitxo SAS, and will initially be able to offer live casino, virtual slot machines, and sports betting until 2031.
According to the projections presented, it is estimated that, for the next 5 years, this operator will contribute approximately $27.282 billion in monopoly revenues and administrative expenses, resources that will go directly to finance the subsidized health system.
It is worth mentioning that, during 2026, online betting portals have contributed $253.224 billion to Coljuegos in terms of exploitation rights, and it is expected that, by the end of the year, these transfers will exceed $450 billion.
The post Coljuegos Authorizes MrYoker as Colombia’s Newest iGaming Operator appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
-
Asia4 days agoS8UL streamer Payal Dhare and OWND! launch gamer-curated fashion capsule
-
Asia4 days ago
S8UL Announces Campa Energy as Title Sponsor for its Esports World Cup 2026 Campaign
-
Europe7 days ago
European Online Gambling Industry Faces Tough Offshore Choice
-
content-supplier3 days ago
Pragmatic Play adds football theme to Big Bass series with new slot
-
Asia4 days ago
EGT Digital to Debut Highly Anticipated “TNT Jack” Slot at SiGMA Asia 2026
-
Compliance Updates4 days ago
PA Gaming Control Board Levies Fines Totaling $180,000
-
Amatic Industries4 days ago
Amatic Industries to Participate in Belgrade Future Gaming Show
-
AI4 days ago
Slotmatic previews Pidiots in London during EGR week with live tournament test
