The Netherlands Gambling Authority (Ksa) has imposed a fine of €4,228,000 on Starscream Limited for offering illegal gambling to Dutch players via the websites rantcasino.com, allstarzcasino.com, and sugarcasino.com.

Starscream had previously been issued a penalty for this illegal offering. On the investigated sites, it was possible to create a player account, make deposits, and participate in the illegal gambling offered. At that time, no technical measures were in place to prevent participation from the Netherlands.

Because Starscream, based in Saint Lucia, is not licensed to offer gambling in the Netherlands, this fine is now being imposed.

The Netherlands has a regulated gambling market to better protect players. Illegal providers do not adhere to the high standards required of legal providers; for example, players at Starscream could gamble without visible age verification and were offered autoplay, which fosters addiction.

The Ksa is taking strong action against illegal offerings. This is done not only through administrative fines, as mentioned here, but also through intensive collaboration with third parties, such as payment service providers, hosting companies, banks, and large tech companies.

Michel Groothuizen, chairman of the board of the Ksa: “The Netherlands Gambling Authority has a broad range of instruments at its disposal to tackle illegal providers. Imposing an administrative fine is one of them. Although collecting such fines presents challenges, particularly for parties outside the EU, with these fines we continue to send the message that we are cracking down on illegal offerings in the Netherlands.”