Massive Fine for Illegal Online Casino

September 16, 2013

We all know that in some countries, online gambling is, at face value, completely illegal. We also know that in these countries, people still play at online casino sites that offer their services internationally. These online gambling sites tend to be registered and licensed off shore, in places that have little or no online gambling legislation in place. However, this situation is slowly changing as Curacao based Global Stars online casino has just discovered.

Global Stars had been exploiting the loophole that exists whereby if an online gambling site is not physically blocked in a country that has made online gambling illegal, and if they can offer a way to deposit and withdraw casino funds that also bypasses this restriction, there is nothing physically stopping them offering online gambling services to people who reside within countries that have made online gambling illegal. But Global Stars had a bit of a shock this week, as the authorities in the Netherlands, a country that has made online gambling illegal, hit the site with a €100,000 fine.

The Netherland's Gaming Authority discovered that Global Stars online casino was not licensed to operate within the country, so levied a €100,000 fine on the company in question. This is despite the fact that the Netherlands is aiming to open up its online gambling market by 2015, making it far less restrictive. But these changes to online gambling legislation have yet to be approved in the Netherlands, and the country has still made online gambling illegal until such times as the laws change, and then online casino operators can apply for a local online gambling license, much in the same way we have begun to see several American States do in the last year or so.

€100,000 may seem like a lot of money, but in terms of the size of the global online gambling market, it is a fairly paltry sum, just a slap on the wrist, and a warning to Global Stars online casino to strop offering its services to people who live in the Netherlands. However, this may be the first to many such events to take place, now a precedent has been set.

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