Dutch police shut down online casinos

The Dutch may be moving toward online gambling legalisation but they’re not there yet, a fact attested to by raids Friday in which seven online casinos were taken off-line and three men detained to assist police in their enquiries into allegations of illegal online gambling.

The publication Casino.nl reported that, following information from the Dutch Gaming Authority, police raiding parties, accompanied by two judge-commissioners, visited a number of premises in Eindhoven in an operation reportedly undertaken by a total of 150 officers.

Three men are reportedly assisting the police with their enquiries: Michel Gregoire (32); his brother Maurice Gregoire (34) and Stijn Flapper (34). There are allegations that very large sums of money are involved, and that charges of laundering monies obtained through the drug trade may be in progress.

The following online casinos have been taken off-line,  checks confirmed early Saturday:

amsterdamscasino.com
amsterdamspoker.com
fruitluck.com
golden10casino. com
jackpotred.com
tanzoo.com
triplegoldcasino.com

Net Gaming Solutions, an online gambling company allegedly associated with the three suspects, was also off-line Saturday amid reports that its claimed Costa Rica operating base and a faux owner identity of Dakota Enterprises SA may have been a ruse designed to cloak the real location and identity of those involved in an illegal online gambling business.

The fact that the Dutch authorities were able to quickly take all of the sites off-line suggests the possibility that the servers were not in Costa Rica at all.

http://www.casino.nl/amsterdams-casino-uit-de-lucht-gehaald

UPDATE: The brothers Gregoire are reportedly also shareholders in a number of Dutch property companies, and allegedly have extensive properties and assets in Spain that include villas, boats and luxury vehicles worth many millions of Euro. It has also been claimed that the suspects own a multi-million Euro online payment company titled Teletik.

Investigations into whether these interests are associated with illegal money streams are currently underway by the National Prosecution Service and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, along with the Dutch kansspelautoiteit.

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