EU Digital Services Act and Online Gambling: Platform Obligations, Content Moderation, and Regulatory Impact

What Is the Digital Services Act?

The Digital Services Act (DSA), formally Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, is a landmark piece of EU legislation that establishes a comprehensive framework for regulating intermediary services in the digital single market. Adopted in October 2022 and fully applicable since 17 February 2024, the DSA creates harmonized rules governing how online platforms handle illegal content, protect users, and ensure advertising transparency.

While the DSA is a horizontal regulation applying to all digital services rather than a gambling-specific law, its provisions carry significant implications for the online gambling sector. Gambling platforms, search engines that index gambling content, social media channels used for gambling advertising, and app stores distributing gambling applications all fall within the DSA's regulatory scope. The regulation operates alongside, not instead of, existing national gambling licensing frameworks, creating an additional compliance layer that operators must navigate.

The DSA distinguishes between four categories of intermediary services, each with escalating obligations: mere conduit services, caching services, hosting services, and online platforms. Online gambling operators typically qualify as hosting services or online platforms depending on their specific business model, particularly if they host user-generated content such as chat features, forums, or community elements.

Why the DSA Matters for Online Gambling

The intersection of the DSA and online gambling regulation is significant for several reasons. First, gambling advertising across the EU has been subject to an increasingly restrictive patchwork of national rules. The DSA introduces a unified transparency layer that supplements these national frameworks, requiring all platforms to label gambling advertisements and disclose targeting criteria regardless of which member state's advertising rules apply.

Second, EU member states have long struggled with enforcing national gambling laws against operators based in other jurisdictions. The DSA provides new enforcement tools, including standardized notice-and-action procedures that allow national authorities to compel platforms to remove illegal gambling content more efficiently. This complements existing measures such as domain blocking and operator blacklists that many member states already employ.

Third, the DSA's systemic risk assessment requirements for Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) bring gambling-related harms into the broader platform governance conversation. Platforms like Google, Meta, Apple, and TikTok must now assess and mitigate risks related to illegal content dissemination, including the promotion of unlicensed gambling services.

DSA Obligations Relevant to Online Gambling Platforms

The DSA imposes a tiered system of obligations, with requirements increasing based on the size and type of service provider. Online gambling platforms face obligations at multiple levels depending on their classification.

General Obligations for All Intermediary Services

Every online gambling platform operating in the EU must comply with baseline DSA requirements:

• Single Point of Contact: Designate a contact point for communication with member state authorities, the European Commission, and the European Board for Digital Services
• Legal Representative: Platforms not established in the EU but offering services to EU users must appoint a legal representative in one member state
• Terms of Service Transparency: Clearly communicate content moderation policies, algorithmic decision-making processes, and complaint mechanisms in terms of service. This overlaps with existing requirements under gambling terms and conditions regulations
• Annual Transparency Reports: Publish reports on content moderation activities, orders received from public authorities, and actions taken on illegal content

Hosting Service Obligations

Gambling platforms that host content (including user chat, community features, or review systems) must additionally implement:

• Notice-and-Action Mechanisms: Electronic systems allowing anyone to notify the platform of allegedly illegal content, including advertisements for unlicensed gambling operators
• Statement of Reasons: When content is removed or restricted, platforms must provide a clear explanation to the affected user, including the legal or contractual basis for the decision
• Cooperation with Orders: Act promptly on orders to remove or disable access to illegal content issued by judicial or administrative authorities

Online Platform-Specific Obligations

Platforms that disseminate information to the public (which includes many gambling-related services) face additional requirements:

• Internal Complaint Handling: Provide users with free, accessible complaint mechanisms for content moderation decisions
• Out-of-Court Dispute Resolution: Enable access to certified dispute resolution bodies, which parallels existing gambling dispute resolution frameworks
• Trusted Flaggers: Prioritize notices from entities designated as trusted flaggers by Digital Services Coordinators, which could include gambling regulators
• Advertising Transparency: Real-time labeling of all advertisements, disclosure of the advertiser's identity, and information about targeting parameters used

Advertising Transparency: A New Layer of Compliance

The DSA's advertising provisions represent one of its most consequential impacts on the gambling sector. Article 26 requires that every advertisement displayed on an online platform must be clearly and unambiguously identifiable as an advertisement in real time. For gambling advertising, which is already heavily regulated at the national level in many EU countries, this creates additional compliance requirements.

Platforms must ensure that for each advertisement, recipients can identify:

• That the information is an advertisement (clear labeling)
• The natural or legal person on whose behalf the advertisement is presented
• The natural or legal person who paid for the advertisement (if different)
• Meaningful information about the main parameters used to determine the recipient to whom the advertisement is presented (targeting transparency)

For Very Large Online Platforms, Article 39 imposes additional obligations. These platforms must maintain publicly accessible advertising repositories containing all advertisements served over the preceding year, searchable by category (which would include gambling), target audience parameters, total number of recipients, and the period during which the advertisement was displayed. The European Commission's DSA Transparency Database provides a centralized resource for tracking platform compliance with these requirements.

Prohibition on Sensitive Data Targeting

Article 26(3) prohibits online platforms from presenting advertisements based on profiling using special categories of personal data as defined in Article 9(1) of the GDPR. This includes data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health data, and sexual orientation. While gambling preference is not explicitly listed as a special category, the intersection of GDPR and gambling data creates complex compliance scenarios. Operators and affiliates using behavioral targeting for gambling advertisements must ensure their targeting methodologies do not inadvertently rely on sensitive data categories.

Furthermore, Article 28 prohibits platforms from presenting advertisements based on profiling to minors, using personal data of minors for targeted advertising. Given the gambling industry's existing obligations around preventing underage gambling, the DSA reinforces these protections from the platform side, requiring age-gating mechanisms in advertising delivery systems.

Enforcement Against Unlicensed Gambling Operators

One of the DSA's most practical impacts on the gambling sector is strengthening the toolkit available to national authorities for combating unlicensed operators. While many EU countries already maintain blacklists and employ domain blocking, the DSA creates standardized procedures for ordering content removal across all types of intermediary services.

Orders to Act Against Illegal Content

Under Article 9, national judicial or administrative authorities can issue orders requiring intermediary services to act against specific items of illegal content. For the gambling sector, this means:

• Search engines can be ordered to de-index unlicensed gambling websites
• Social media platforms can be compelled to remove advertisements for unauthorized gambling operators
• App stores can be required to remove unlicensed gambling applications
• Hosting providers can be ordered to take down websites offering illegal gambling services

These orders must specify the legal basis for illegality under national or EU law, contain a statement of reasons, and identify the authority issuing the order. The platform must inform the issuing authority of the effect given to the order without undue delay. According to European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) analysis, these standardized procedures could significantly improve the effectiveness of channeling players toward licensed operators.

Information Orders

Article 10 allows authorities to issue orders requiring platforms to provide specific information about individual users suspected of operating illegal gambling services. This complements existing AML compliance requirements by giving regulators additional investigative tools for identifying operators behind unlicensed gambling platforms.

Digital Services Coordinators and Gambling Regulators

Each EU member state must designate a Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) responsible for supervising intermediary services and enforcing DSA obligations within their jurisdiction. The relationship between DSCs and existing gambling regulators varies across member states and creates a new layer of institutional coordination.

In most member states, the DSC is a different authority from the gambling regulator. For example, in the Netherlands the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) serves as the DSC, while the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) remains the gambling regulator. This dual-authority structure requires effective cooperation mechanisms to ensure that gambling-specific expertise informs DSA enforcement decisions related to gambling content.

The DSA's framework for cross-border cooperation through the European Board for Digital Services also creates new pathways for addressing gambling platforms that operate across multiple EU jurisdictions, a persistent challenge in the fragmented European gambling regulatory landscape as explored in our analysis of EU gambling regulatory cooperation.

VLOP and VLOSE Obligations: Systemic Risk Assessments

The most stringent DSA obligations apply to Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs), defined as those with 45 million or more monthly active users in the EU. As of 2026, designated VLOPs include Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Google (Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping), TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Amazon, Apple (App Store), Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and several others.

These platforms must conduct annual systemic risk assessments under Article 34, evaluating risks related to:

• The dissemination of illegal content through their services
• Negative effects on fundamental rights
• Negative effects on civic discourse and electoral processes
• Negative effects related to public health and minors

For gambling, the public health and minors dimensions are particularly relevant. VLOPs must assess how their platforms may facilitate exposure to gambling content among minors or vulnerable populations, and implement reasonable, proportionate, and effective mitigation measures under Article 35. These could include enhanced age verification for gambling-related content, algorithmic adjustments to reduce gambling content visibility for younger users, or improved detection of unlicensed gambling advertisements.

Independent Audits

VLOPs must undergo independent annual audits (Article 37) assessing compliance with DSA obligations, including advertising transparency, systemic risk management, and content moderation practices. Audit reports are shared with the Digital Services Coordinator and the European Commission, and summaries are published. For platforms that carry significant gambling advertising, these audits provide external scrutiny of how effectively they manage gambling-related compliance obligations.

Impact on Gambling Affiliate Marketing and Intermediaries

The DSA's advertising transparency requirements have particular implications for the gambling affiliate marketing sector. Affiliate websites, comparison platforms, and review sites that promote gambling operators function as intermediaries between operators and players. Depending on their technical architecture, these services may qualify as hosting services or online platforms under the DSA.

Affiliates that qualify as platforms must comply with advertising labeling requirements, ensuring that all gambling promotional content is clearly identified as advertising. This aligns with and strengthens existing obligations under national affiliate marketing rules for gambling in the EU, which already require transparency about commercial relationships with operators.

The DSA also affects how affiliates use algorithmic recommendation systems. If an affiliate platform uses algorithms to personalize gambling offers or content recommendations, it must provide users with the ability to modify or opt out of such personalization under Article 27, which requires offering at least one recommendation option not based on profiling.

Interaction with Other EU Digital Regulations

The DSA does not exist in isolation. It forms part of a broader EU digital regulatory framework that collectively affects online gambling operations:

The European Commission's "Europe Fit for the Digital Age" strategy positions these regulations as complementary elements of a comprehensive digital governance framework. For gambling operators, this means navigating multiple overlapping compliance regimes simultaneously, as analyzed in our guide to AI in EU gambling regulation.

Practical Compliance Considerations for Operators

Online gambling operators serving EU markets should evaluate their DSA exposure based on the following considerations:

Service Classification

Operators must determine their classification under the DSA tiered framework. A standard online casino or sportsbook offering only its own services (no user-generated content) may qualify as a hosting service with limited DSA obligations. However, platforms incorporating community features, chat functionality, forums, tip-sharing sections, or user reviews would likely qualify as online platforms, triggering additional obligations including advertising transparency, complaint handling, and trusted flagger cooperation.

Advertising Compliance

Operators purchasing advertising on platforms (social media, search engines, affiliate networks) should verify that their advertising partners comply with DSA transparency requirements. This includes ensuring advertisements are properly labeled, targeting parameters are disclosed, and no sensitive data profiling is used for ad delivery. Operators should also review their affiliate contracts to allocate DSA compliance responsibilities clearly.

Content Moderation Policies

Platforms with user-generated content features must establish notice-and-action mechanisms and publish transparent content moderation policies. These should address gambling-specific scenarios such as users sharing unauthorized gambling links, promoting unlicensed operators, or engaging in activities that could constitute illegal gambling facilitation.

Cooperation with Authorities

Operators should establish procedures for responding to orders from Digital Services Coordinators and judicial authorities. This includes maintaining contact points, understanding response timeframes, and ensuring internal processes can handle removal orders and information requests efficiently.

Enforcement and Penalties

The DSA provides a robust enforcement framework with significant penalties for non-compliance. The European Commission directly supervises VLOPs and VLOSEs, while national Digital Services Coordinators oversee all other intermediary services.

Penalty thresholds under the DSA include:

• VLOPs/VLOSEs: Fines up to 6% of global annual turnover for non-compliance with DSA obligations
• Periodic penalties: Up to 5% of average daily worldwide turnover for ongoing non-compliance
• Interim measures: The Commission can impose temporary measures to address serious and urgent risks
• Other intermediaries: National laws determine penalties, which must be effective, proportionate, and dissuasive

For the gambling sector specifically, enforcement actions could target platforms that fail to remove illegal gambling advertisements, app stores that continue distributing unlicensed gambling applications after receiving valid removal orders, or search engines that fail to de-index blacklisted gambling operators in compliance with national authority orders.

Looking Ahead: The DSA's Evolving Impact on Gambling

As DSA implementation matures through 2026 and beyond, several developments are likely to shape its impact on the gambling sector:

First, the interaction between DSCs and gambling regulators will become more formalized. The International Comparative Legal Guides on gambling laws note that regulatory coordination mechanisms are still being established in most member states. As these structures mature, we can expect more effective cross-regulatory enforcement against illegal gambling content.

Second, the European Commission's enforcement priorities for VLOPs will likely incorporate gambling-related systemic risks more explicitly. Early DSA enforcement has focused primarily on disinformation and hate speech, but gambling advertising transparency and minor protection represent areas where the Commission has signaled future interest.

Third, the advertising transparency databases maintained by VLOPs will generate valuable data about gambling advertising practices across the EU, potentially informing future policy decisions about gambling advertising regulation at both national and EU level.

Finally, the DSA's notice-and-action mechanisms may become a preferred enforcement tool for gambling regulators, particularly in cross-border situations where traditional domain blocking has proven insufficient. Combined with existing blacklisting and payment blocking measures, the DSA creates a more comprehensive enforcement infrastructure that channels players toward licensed, regulated gambling services that provide consumer protections, responsible gambling tools, and dispute resolution mechanisms.