DIGITAL SERVICES ACT
of illegal products online. The response stopped short of committing the Commission to any dedicated inquiry into gambling-related illegal content promotion. Instead, it largely restated existing DSA obligations, such as the notice-and- action mechanism and systemic risk assessment duties, without explaining how these horizontal tools would address the sector-specific challenges of identifying unlicensed gambling content. The response is legally cautious as it leaves a central practical question unresolved: whether the general enforcement powers available under the DSA can be deployed effectively in this sector. This exchange, though narrow in its immediate institutional context, exposes a deeper tension within the European Union's regulatory architecture for digital services. It invites scrutiny of a central proposition that this article seeks to interrogate. The DSA, notwithstanding the formal enforcement powers it confers upon the Commission, exhibits an enforcement gap when applied to the dissemination of unlicensed gambling content online. The gap is not simply an absence of legal authority, but arises from the interaction between the DSA’s horizontal, cross-sectoral framework and the predominantly national regulation of gambling. It is particularly pronounced in relation to content promoted by operators who deliberately circumvent national licensing requirements and target European consumers through major digital platforms. The analysis that follows considers these issues in turn, placing the Verheyen exchange within the broader context of the DSA's tiered obligations, its enforcement practice to date, and the national and jurisprudential developments that illustrate the practical limits of applying a horizontal regulatory framework to the specific context of unlicensed gambling operators. What is striking is the disproportionality between the scale of the problem and the institutional response. Industry data points to a multi-billion-euro market of unlicensed
Introduction In April 2026, Sabine Verheyen, a Member of the European Parliament from the European People’s Party, Germany, submitted a written question to the European Commission (EC) that raised fundamental questions about the practical enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the online gambling sector 1 . The DSA, which has been in full application since February 2024, was designed to establish comprehensive obligations for digital intermediaries. Verheyen’s inquiry challenged whether those mechanisms are proving effective in practice, particularly against the promotion of unlicensed gambling services targeting European consumers. The question is therefore not simply whether the DSA applies, but whether it can deliver meaningful intervention where illegality is defined through fragmented national licensing rules rather than a single EU standard rule. The inquiry asked whether the EC is aware that online content creators established or active within the Union are actively promoting unlicensed gambling services to substantial audiences, and whether the Commission intends to open an investigation into this practice 2 . In support of this inquiry, Verheyen invoked empirical findings from a 2024 study conducted by Yield Sec 3 and commissioned by the European Casino Association (ECA). The study estimated that approximately 71 percent of online gambling activity directed at European users occurs on unlicensed platforms, a figure that, if accurate, would point not merely to a significant market presence but to a serious weakness in the combined capacity of national licensing regimes and EU- level enforcement mechanisms to protect consumers from unregulated gambling operators. The Commission's reply, issued on 12 June 2026 under the authority of Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen 4 , acknowledged in general terms the issue of undisclosed advertising on online platforms, as well as the promotion
1 iGaming Expert (2026) European Commission questioned over Digital Services Act enforcement against illegal gambling. Available at: https:// igamingexpert.com/features/ec-dsa-2026-illegal/ 2 European Parliament (2026) Parliamentary question E-001475/2026: Questions submitted by Sabine Verheyen to the European Commission. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2026-001475_EN.html 3 European Parliament (2026) Answer to Parliamentary Question E-001475/2026 (ASW): Reply from the European Commission. Available at: Parliamentary question | Answer for question E-001475/26 | E-001475/2026(ASW) | European Parliament 4 Ibid
IMGL MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2026
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