Spain’s Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) has published the 15 sanctions totalling €65,325,000 that it administered in the first half of the year in the online gambling sector, 13 of which were categorised as very serious.
Very serious offences are given to offshore companies operating in Spain without a licence, which makes them very difficult to enforce. The offenders for the first six months of 2024 were: Interactive Pro; Starscream; Love Casino; Rouge Casino; Mountberg; Alimanieri; Golden Pharaoh; Golden Lion; Golden Genie; Bigwins Games Tech; Games & More; Gladiator Holding; and R.Bostock Enterprises.
Every company listed for a very serious infraction is licensed or claims to be licensed in Curaçao, and each one was fined €5m.
Love Casino Ltd, Rouge Casino, Golden Lion and Bigwins Games Tech all list a Curaçao licence but appear to be unlicensed.
Starscream Ltd was fined for allowing players with a Spanish IP address and Spanish bank card to play on its sites, although it is not licensed in the country.
Starscream appears to have absorbed Gammix Ltd, which faced record fines from the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) for similar issues.
Starscream is registered in St. Lucia and acquired the operations of Gammix Ltd after Gammix was heavily fined by the KSA in 2022 for allowing Dutch players to use its sites and credit cards without a licence.
At the time, it faced a penalty of €1.47m a week for non-compliance with a maximum penalty of €4.41m, which was eventually issued. Phil Pearson, its then-CEO, said that the claims were unproven and unfounded.
The company did not cease operations and in February of this year was fined €19.7m for not checking the age of players, anonymous deposits and allowing autoplay on casino games, in addition to its previous violations.
In August 2023, players posted on online forums an email they had received from Gammix notifying them that their accounts would be transferred to Starscream, asking if they would like to close their accounts or proceed with the transfer.
One of Gammix’s sites at the centre of the KSA fines, Nordslot, was listed in the fine issued by the DGOJ.
Starscream operates under a licence from Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), while Gammix is licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority.
Codere was also fined €100,000 for a serious infraction. The company posted content on its Facebook page which was deemed to possibly be attractive to minors.