AMSTERDAM - The Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands has seized 100 million euros when dismantling a web casino operating from Curaçao. This happened after house searches in Curaçao, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Malta, Austria and Switzerland.
Six suspects, five men (66, 56, 52, 51, 51) and a woman (45), are suspected of violating the Gambling Act, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. It is suspected that they have earned more than 250 million euros by illegally offering online games of chance on the Dutch market and have laundered this. In total, more than 100 million euros were seized, including art, homes, bank accounts, jewelry, cars, boats and investments.
The suspects had chosen the Curaçao route that is favored by the gambling mafia for illegally offering online games of chance on the Dutch market: an apparently neat trust office sets up a company and registers itself as a director with the Chamber of Commerce. A sub-license is then purchased - usually from a master licensee affiliated with the trust office.
The true owners stay out of the picture of the investigative services, use their web casino to launder criminal profits from drugs, arms and people smuggling or to defraud players by paying only a small part of players' stake as prize money.
The investigation led by the Public Prosecutor's Office is continuing. Whether this also focuses on parties in Willemstad that facilitated the activities of the suspects has not been disclosed. The gambling sector operating from Curaçao is estimated to be worth many billions every year.