Dutch gaming regulator shuts three illegal casinos
KSA has shut down three illegal casinos in a raid conducted in the city of Venlo.
The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit, has shut down three illegal casino operations during raids carried out at a café and an adjoining house in Venlo in the southeast of the Netherlands.
KSA seized €12,000 in cash, a Rolex watch and 19 unlicensed slot machines, which it has had destroyed. The regulator said that one of the slot machines had seen monthly turnover of €100,000.
The regulator found 22 people on the premises at the time of the raids. Two were arrested on charges of money laundering.
Antoin Scholten, the mayor of Venlo, said: “Tackling illegal gambling is important to Venlo. With this we protect our young people, we give criminals no chance of money laundering and we stop breeding grounds for possible drug trafficking.
“Moreover, these criminal activities cause a lot of unrest and nuisance in the area. We will continue to take action against that.”
Dutch gaming regulator raids homes in the Netherlands and Spain.
The latest raids come just a week after KSA led raids on homes in The Netherlands and Spain as part of a probe into illegal gambling.
The raids in the Netherlands took place in the northern municipality of Velsen. Two luxury cars, money, jewellery and paperwork were seized.
KSA said the owner of the homes raided was suspected of money laundering and of offering unlicensed gaming in the Netherlands.
The regulator said it had worked with police, the Public Prosecution Service, the Tax Authorities, the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) and the municipality of Velsen under the Regional Information and Expertise Centre (RIEC) North Holland to combine resources and expertise.
The regulator also investigated two companies in Curaçao, which are now being assessed by The Netherlands’ Tax and Customs Administration.
It said illegal gambling operations blurred boundaries between the underworld and society because criminals set up businesses to run their activities, applied for permits and rented or bought buildings, requiring wider cooperation, for example from estate agents and notaries.
The KSA argued that illegal operations were thus able to put pressure on authorised business operators.
See also: Dutch minister creates fast-track reporting system for match-fixing
KSA fines Curaçao-based Raging Rhino
KSA has also recently issued a fine of €440,000 against Curaçao-based igaming operator Raging Rhino for offering unlicensed gaming in the Netherlands.
The KSA found that Raging Rhino’s LuckyDays.com site had been accessible to Dutch customers. The site offered links to problem gambling help services in Dutch and allowed customers to use Dutch payment processing solution iDEAL.
The Dutch regulator found that between May 1 and July 31 last year, 224,630 transactions amounting to more than €18m were processed through iDEAL. Access to the site in the Netherlands has since been blocked.
The KSA opened the Netherlands igaming licensing process on April 1 as the Netherlands’ new Remote Gambling Act came into force after several delays. However, the regulator has stressed that offering online gaming remains prohibited until the licensed market opens on October 1.
See also: Netherlands gaming regulator clamps down on affiliates
