Debate is raging within the Austrian government about whether to impose a cooling off period and freeze ex-grey market operators out of its upcoming open online casino market, with local operators looking to inflict maximum punishment and legal experts arguing that the proposal would be self-defeating.

Austria is on course for an historic opening of its long monopolized online casino market. Currently, only Casinos Austria, via its brand Win2Day, has the approval of the Austrian government to offer online casino games to the general public.

But for many years, that legal status was ignored by operators based largely out of Malta, who populated a vibrant grey market by leaning on the controversial argument that Austria’s monopoly model is in violation of EU law.

These offshore operators were eventually forced to retreat by a series of high profile court rulings that found Austrian consumers have the right to reclaim any and all losses to an operator without an Austrian licence.

Facing potentially hundreds of millions of euros in compensation claims, grey market providers have largely retreated to Malta, where Bill 55 continues to protect them.

With liberalisation now on the horizon, some forces within the Austrian government and the local gambling industry are insistent that companies which took part in the grey market should not be allowed to simply apply for a licence and wipe the slate clean.

Who’s in favour?

Those lobbying the hardest for a cooling off period are Austrian incumbents.

“One day you’re offering illegal services and the next day you get a license – that’s absurd,” a spokesperson for Casinos Austria told the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

They are joined by German-headquartered gambling giant Novomatic, which operates a number of land-based venues in Austria under the brand Admiral.

Having sat on the sidelines of the online market for many years, Admiral is incensed by the idea that it could be competing on day one of a new market with operators who did not take the same approach.

The three parties that form Austria’s coalition government are still debating the issues, according to reports.

The only major practical example of a true “cooling off” period occured in the Netherlands, where an 18-month prohibition was in place that prevented many companies from entering the market when it opened in 2021.

At the time, Kindred reported that being forced to sit out market launch had cost it $16.2m a month, wiping out effectively 50 percent of the group’s EBITDA.

Kindred, which has since transformed into FDJ United following an acquisition by the French lottery giant, subsequently regained its strong Dutch position following the end of the cooling off window.

Likely to cool

At least one Austrian legal expert believes that there is a good chance that some form of cooling off, or an equivalent punishment, will be enacted as part of the new law.

“At the moment, it is likely that some form of cooling-off period will be introduced, perhaps by introducing sanctions that apply prior to licensing, but the details are yet to be determined,” said Nicholas Aquilina, a partner at Brandl Talos law firm.

“Whether a cooling-off period will be introduced and how restrictive measures will be will have a substantial impact on the success of the long-overdue opening of Austria’s online gambling market,” he added.

The time pressures referenced by Aquilina relate to the expiry of Win2Day’s exclusive licence, which is set to run out in October 2027. The government intends to establish its new online gambling regime well ahead of that date, so that new licences can be issued in time.

Any attempt to extend Win2Day’s monopoly could run into challenges with EU tender laws and the other highly unpalatable option is to leave the nation in limbo with no legal providers at all.

Complications

Despite how the debate has been framed by some parties, the reality will not be as simple as either allowing ex-grey market offenders into the new Austrian online casino marketplace free of consequence or forcing them to spend time in the sin bin.

There is broad political agreement that any international operator looking to obtain a licence in Austria must pay back taxes owed on its former activity in order to be granted approval.

Operators will also need to settle any outstanding player refund claims, something which could cost companies huge sums and may ultimately keep some of them out of the market for good.

There are thought to be thousands of pending refunds, which operators have largely been refusing to pay while they take refuge behind Malta’s Bill 55.

Against that backdrop, lawyers Christian Rapani and Felix Hohenthanner argue that the penalties for returning to Austria will likely be harsh enough.

“A further exclusion of two to three years on top of that would, in our view, work against the reform’s own central objective. The operators currently holding the largest share of Austrian play are exactly the ones a cooling-off period would shut out. If they cannot offer a licensed product for two to three years, their customers, it is highly likely, will not migrate to the licensed providers,” they told EEGaming.

Ultimately, the two lawyers said, the push for a cooling off period is more about protecting the vested interests in Austria’s casino market than an attempt to keep gamblers safe.

“Our impression is that the proposal is supported essentially only by the land-based operators and by the single provider that already holds a licence in Austria, in other words by those who benefit from keeping new entrants out. We therefore see it less as a genuine player-protection measure than as a last attempt to preserve existing market positions,” they said.

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The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has fined an operator over €880,000 for not treating its customers with adequate care, creating highly unwelcome negative PR for the industry at exactly the moment when it is desperate for positivity.

The KSA announced today (June 11) that it was fining licensed operator 711 a total of €886,000 for a series of duty of care failings, having found violations in all ten player files that it requested to view.

As part of its routine compliance sweeps, the regulator requested detailed gambling and customer care data on ten randomly selected high spenders at the operator.

The authority said that 711 had not properly analysed the gambling behaviour of its customers or taken the right measures to intervene when they showed signs of risky play.

In one case a player was allowed to lose €40,000 in four days before they were contacted for a wellness check and a source of funds request, the KSA said.

The contact that did take place was also not sufficiently in-depth to identify if the individual had a gambling problem, the regulator added.

In another case, a player was allowed to lose almost €200,000 over several weeks before they were contacted for a source of funds check, the KSA said.

The fine is the latest in a series of penalties related to the duty of care that operators own to their customers, which unlike many other European nations is an established part of the country’s gambling act.

The largest penalty so far is a €4m fine for Unibet operator Optdeck, but regulatory officials have said they continue to find failings on their random sweeps.

711 declined to give a comment to EEGaming, saying that it has a policy of not speaking with the press.

The decision by the KSA can be appealed.

The bigger context

The penalty for 711 is not the first punishment for duty of care failings in the Netherlands and it is unlikely to be the last, but this particular fine comes at a pivotal moment for the future of Dutch gambling.

The industry is awaiting a statement from minister Claudia van Bruggen on how she will change gambling policy over the next year.

She is under extreme pressure from several organised groups within parliament to enact tough new rules on a market that is already struggling to keep players out of the black market.

Most notably there have been repeated calls for a complete advertising ban, in addition to the existing ban on all non-targeted gambling advertising in the Netherlands.

A complete ban is opposed by the KSA, which revealed recently that it had held meetings with van Bruggen to make their case and said she “took our concerns very seriously”.

There have also been calls for a hard cap on the number of online gambling licences in the Netherlands, something that the KSA also argues is not in the best interests of consumers.

However the issuing of yet another reputation-damaging fine for the sector further adds to the risk that van Bruggen will feel a need to give in to public and political pressure and really turn the screw on the beleaguered sector.

Experts estimate that channelisation for online gambling in the Netherlands may be as low as 45 percent.

Rates of gambling with licensed operators have collapsed following the introduction of deposit limits, which can only be removed via affordability checks, and tax increases which have seen rates rise to 37.8 percent of gross gambling revenue.

One small crumb of relief for the industry will be upcoming proof of what something they warned would happen: Increasing the tax rate has resulted in lower income for the government, as players likely stop gambling or seek better odds offshore.

“A new impact assessment of the gambling tax will probably be published at the end of June, showing that the increase in the gambling tax did not achieve its intended goal,” revealed KSA head of licences and supervision, Ella Seijsener, speaking at the recent Gaming in Holland conference.

Analysts suggest that growth in the online market has slowed rapidly in recent months and that although channelisation may not decline further from here under current market conditions, there is equally little hope of lifting it back above 50 percent as things stand.

But far from an easing of rules, the local industry expects things to get tougher from here and are simply hoping that van Bruggen’s manifesto for the next phase of Dutch gambling regulation avoids some of the more extreme measures called for by her fellow politicians.

The post Dutch Duty of Care Fine Ramps Pressure On Industry Under Siege appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

The affiliate management platform takes the title in Madrid during the AffPapa Conference, following a SiGMA South America win earlier in 2026.

ReferOn has been named “Affiliate System of the Year” at the AffPapa iGaming Awards 2026 in Madrid, with the award announced during the AffPapa Conference.

The company said the win recognizes ReferOn’s growth and product development in affiliate management, including efforts to simplify multi-brand tracking and campaign reporting.

ReferOn pointed to recent product additions including its “Refie” visual UX layer and an automated crypto finance layer, which it said are designed to reduce manual administration and spreadsheet-driven workflows.

Alex Bukin, CEO at ReferOn, said: “This recognition belongs entirely to our team, whose passion drives our growth every single day. Our mission with ReferOn has always been disruptive: we don’t want to be another tool in the stack; we want to revolutionize how affiliate programs operate by making data transparent, accurate, and incredibly easy to manage. Winning this award confirms that giving teams their time back through better tracking is exactly what the market needs. With strong momentum behind us, our future expansion plans will continue to elevate the industry standard.”

The announcement follows ReferOn’s “Best Affiliate Software 2026” win at the SiGMA South America Awards. The company said its product roadmap for 2026 and beyond is focused on scale and platform updates, alongside expanding its global presence and strategic alliances.

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