The Dutch Kansspelautoriteit has issued a collection decree ordering Adventure One QSS Inc., the operating entity behind Polymarket, to pay a €420,000 penalty after the prediction market remained accessible in the Netherlands one day past its enforcement deadline.
The deadline and the breach
The KSA had ordered Polymarket to cease offering services to Dutch users by 17 February 2026, warning that non-compliance would trigger a weekly penalty of €420,000, capped at a maximum of €840,000. The regulator ran a follow-up check the day after the deadline and found that local users could still log in and place bets, which under the terms of the order automatically forfeited a single weekly increment.
The KSA issued its collection decree on 19 May 2026, with payment due within six weeks. The regulator’s statement read:
“The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) imposes a penalty payment order on Adventure One QSS Inc. for an illegal gambling offering. Adventure One offers gambling on the Dutch market under the brand name Polymarket without possessing the proper license to do so. The Dutch Gaming Authority determines that Adventure One QSS Inc. has violated the imposed order and that a penalty payment of €420,000 has been forfeited by operation of law. The Dutch Gaming Authority proceeds with collection.”
Polymarket disputes the basis for the fine
Polymarket has pushed back on the regulator’s findings. The company argues it implemented its geo-block on the set date and that any continued accessibility detected on 18 February was the product of technical factors during rollout rather than a deliberate breach. The operator has also raised a procedural objection, arguing that collection is premature while its challenge to the original order remains pending, and disputing that the KSA had sufficient grounds on 18 February to conclude the order had been violated.
Part of a wider enforcement pattern
The case traces back to the KSA’s February order, which classified Polymarket’s prediction markets as unlicensed games of chance under the Remote Gambling Act. The enforcement action followed scrutiny of approximately $32m in wagers placed on the October 2025 Dutch parliamentary elections, including more than $10m on the PVV party and roughly $6m on Democrats 66. At the time, KSA director of licensing and supervision Ella Seijsener said:
“Prediction markets are on the rise, including in the Netherlands. These types of companies offer bets that are not permitted in our market under any circumstances, not even by license holders. Besides the social risks of these kinds of predictions, for example the potential influence on elections, we conclude that this constitutes illegal gambling.”
The Netherlands is one of several jurisdictions to act against prediction market platforms. Polymarket has encountered regulatory or legal challenges in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Portugal, Hungary and Thailand, alongside multiple US states. The operator separately paid a $1.4m penalty to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission over an earlier product structure that regulators classified as unregistered swaps.
For more on how European regulators are approaching prediction markets, see DGA regulator powerless to block prediction markets without Danish targeting and Dutch regulator warns against gambling normalization.
The order against Adventure One QSS remains open to further enforcement. A second weekly increment of €420,000 could still be forfeited if the KSA determines continued non-compliance, bringing the total exposure to the full €840,000 cap. Polymarket’s formal objection to the underlying order, and to this collection decree, has yet to be resolved.
Source: Kansspelautoriteit
