Industry roundup: week ending 18 September 2026

A busy week for regulators. The Netherlands completed its first licence renewal cycle since opening its market, political pressure continued to build on Brazil's regulated sector, and enforcement agencies in New Zealand and Turkey published the results of compliance work. Below is our summary of the stories that matter most to operators and suppliers, with links to the original reporting by iGaming Business.

Netherlands: first licence renewals set a higher bar

The Dutch regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit, issued its first eight online licence renewals on 18 September, covering TOTO Online, Holland Casino, Play North, FPO Nederland, Bingoal Nederland, Hillside (New Media Malta), NSUS Malta and Betent. The current licences run to 30 September 2026, with a new five-year term starting on 1 October. This is the first renewal round since the Dutch market opened in 2021, and the regulator has raised its expectations. Applicants with past compliance failures were required to set out what they had changed as a result, and every operator must now submit an exit plan describing how it would wind down responsibly if a licence were refused or withdrawn.

What this means for operators: renewal is not a formality in a maturing market, so keep a documented record of how past regulatory findings were remediated, and expect wind-down planning to become a standard licensing requirement in other jurisdictions.

Read the original story on iGaming Business

Brazil: political pressure grows around a legal market

President Lula said during a livestream on 15 September that he would close online betting companies if the decision were his alone, citing meetings with people who had suffered serious harm through gambling and questioning why unusual payment patterns had not been detected sooner. His comments came in the same week that Finance Minister Dario Durigan sought to cool speculation that the sector is being protected for fiscal reasons, saying that "Brazil does not depend on betting revenue to balance public accounts". Direct tax on the sector has risen to 15 per cent, and betting has been brought within the Selective Tax. Online betting remains regulated and legal, overseen by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, with operators submitting daily financial reporting.

What this means for operators: a licence does not insulate a business from political risk, so licensed operators in Brazil should assume continued scrutiny of payment monitoring and player protection, and should be able to evidence both on demand.

Read the original story on iGaming Business and the Finance Minister's response.

United Kingdom: warning over machine games duty

Entain has written to the Prime Minister warning against a proposed doubling of machine games duty to 40 per cent, which the Chancellor is reported to be considering ahead of the Autumn Budget. Chief executive Stella David set out the company's estimate of the impact: around £100 million in additional annual retail costs, up to 1,470 shop closures and 15,900 job losses, and as much as £1 billion in stakes moving to unlicensed operators. The letter also pointed to the company's annual contribution to British horse racing.

What this means for operators: tax policy is now a live commercial risk in mature markets, and operators with retail estates should be modelling duty scenarios alongside their licensing and compliance budgets.

Read the original story on iGaming Business

New Zealand: regulator recovers NZ$11.5m from gaming trusts

The Department of Internal Affairs has recovered NZ$11.5 million following a compliance investigation into class 4 gambling operators, the trusts that run gaming machines in pubs and clubs. The department found money that should have been available for community grants had instead been spent on society expenses, including buying further gaming machines, alongside accounting failures and a failure to surrender venue licences when required. One Foundation had its operating licence suspended for six days. The recovered funds have been directed to community organisations, and the regulator has issued new financial guidance.

What this means for operators: where a licence carries obligations about how funds are applied, the accounting trail is the compliance evidence, and weak record-keeping alone can put a licence at risk.

Read the original story on iGaming Business

Turkey: coordinated crackdown on illegal betting

Turkish authorities carried out raids across eight provinces as part of an operation against illegal betting, identifying 177 suspects and 17.75 billion lira of suspicious activity in connected accounts. The work involved cybercrime and anti-smuggling units, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board and local prosecutors. For context on the scale of the unlicensed market, authorities report blocking 548,420 illegal betting and gambling sites between 2006 and 2025, including around 84,000 in 2025.

What this means for operators: enforcement in prohibited markets increasingly follows the money rather than the website, so payment relationships and beneficial ownership are where exposure is most likely to surface.

Read the original story on iGaming Business

The week in short

• Renewal standards are tightening in established regulated markets, with exit planning now an explicit requirement in the Netherlands.
• Political risk remains material in Brazil even though the market is licensed and generating tax revenue.
• Duty and tax changes are becoming a bigger variable in commercial planning than licence fees.
• Enforcement is focused on financial records and payment flows as much as on operations.

If you are weighing up a new licence application, a renewal, or how a change of regime affects an existing permission, we are happy to talk it through. Get in touch and tell us about your markets and timescales.

Source: iGaming Business. This summary is provided for general information and is not legal advice.