Thirty-two days. The Kansspelautoriteit’s announcement of its 2026 licensing policy, published on 2 September 2025, carries a sentence that has been counting down ever since: the licences granted in September 2021 expire on 1 October 2026, a Dutch remote licence running for five years. Checked on 29 August 2026, the regulator’s news index carried nothing that moves that date — and nothing announcing which licences have been renewed, refused or withdrawn. The date therefore stands unrebutted, but not positively reconfirmed.
The same policy change introduced a new document: an exit plan.
What the plan has to cover
Since 1 January 2026 every applicant has had to submit one. Per the beleidsregels as published in the Staatscourant, article 2.4 covers a licence holder winding down its offering when a licence ends — whenever, however and for whatever reason — and an operator stopping before the licence does. The plan must describe how player balances are settled and paid out, and what happens when a balance cannot be repaid because of something the player did or failed to do, or a cause outside the operator’s control, despite far-reaching effort on its part.
The definition is the part that matters here
This rulebook does not leave a bonus to inference. The definitions article, 1.1(9), defines players’ balances as the total credit of individual players with a licence holder, “waaronder begrepen de door spelers behaalde speelwinsten en bonussen” — read in translation, including players’ winnings and bonuses. A separate chapter, articles 7.1 and 7.5 to 7.6, counts those balances as sufficiently separated from other assets where the operator shows measures guaranteeing they can be paid out at all times — through a Dutch stichting derdengelden, a third-party funds foundation, or an equivalent arrangement.
So a bonus is not a marketing token in this rulebook. It is part of the sum the operator must be able to hand back.
What the instrument does not settle is what a bonus is worth while its wagering requirement is unfinished — our audit of the standard welcome match puts a figure on what clearing one actually involves. Cleared, a bonus is cash. Uncleared, it is a conditional credit priced by the wagering clause in the operator’s own terms.
There is a hint of how the regulator reasons: its published bonus requirements state that a bonus already agreed must still be paid out after an addiction-prevention intervention, and paid out in accordance with the agreed conditions — which sends the question straight back to the terms.
The practical reading, as of this writing and for the Dutch market only: an exit plan is a licensing document, not a promise made to you. Keep the deposit budget where it already was, and treat an unfinished wagering requirement as an obligation with a clock on it, never as money sitting in the account.