Dutch Regulator Orders Spinstar.bet Operator to Stop Unlicensed Gambling

The board of the Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, Ksa) has ordered JACO V.I.P. Limitada, the Costa Rica-registered operator of the gambling website spinstar.bet, to stop offering unlicensed online games of chance to players in the Netherlands. The regulator disclosed the enforcement action in a news item dated October 22, 2026.

The cease-and-desist order, in Dutch administrative law a last onder dwangsom backed by periodic penalty payments, is dated August 20, 2026, and was signed in The Hague by P.J.H. Benner, team manager for supervision, on behalf of the board. It records the board’s determination that the company gives players the opportunity to participate in games of chance through spinstar.bet while no licence for that offering has been issued under the Betting and Gaming Act (Wet op de kansspelen), in violation of the Act’s prohibition on unlicensed gambling.

The Act prohibits offering games of chance in the Netherlands without a licence and charges the Ksa with supervising and enforcing compliance. The order states that the regulator considers unlicensed online offerings very serious because they circumvent the policy goals of preventing gambling addiction, protecting consumers, and countering fraud and crime, and that the regulator’s enforcement against illegal providers of online games of chance has repeatedly been reviewed by the courts and found lawful.

Test Transactions by a Supervisor

A Ksa supervisor examined spinstar.bet on February 12, 2026, and March 13, 2026, and found it possible from the Netherlands to create a player account, deposit money, and participate in games of chance. No technical measures had been taken to block access for participants from the Netherlands. On February 12, the supervisor registered as a new player from a Dutch IP address using an email address and password, exercising an investigative power provided by the Act.

The supervisor selected a payment option labelled ING, was redirected to a Dutch bank, and deposited €10 into the player account; the payment instructions were in Dutch, and the account balance was credited with the deposit. The supervisor then played “Le Bandit,” which displayed as a virtual version of a slot machine. The stake was lowered from €2.00 to the €0.10 minimum, ten autoplay spins ran, and the outcome could not be influenced by the player; the balance moved from €10.00 to €9.71. The site’s Terms of Use stated that users must pay any taxes due on their winnings in the jurisdiction where they live, a clause the order records as demonstrating the opportunity to compete for prizes or premiums. On March 13, 2026, the supervisor logged in again with the account created on February 12 and again successfully participated in a game of chance.

A re-check on July 16, 2026, produced the same results. The supervisor registered from a Dutch IP address, deposited €20 through the ING option with Dutch-language instructions, and played “Book of Dead,” also displayed as a virtual slot machine. The game showed a coin value of €0.20 with ten win lines; after the win lines were set to the minimum of one, the coin value automatically adjusted to its €0.01 minimum. The supervisor ran one spin, again found that the outcome could not be influenced, and recorded the balance moving from €20.00 to €19.99.

Dutch-Market Targeting and Ownership

Beyond the absence of technical blocking, the order lists features that, read in combination, show the website targets the Dutch market: the URL automatically changes to spinstar.bet/nl when the site is visited, a Dutch flag is displayed automatically, payments are made in euros, and the ING option routes to a Dutch bank. The website itself is in English, as is the live chat. The Dutch affiliate website spinstarcasinos.com links through to spinstar.bet when a visitor clicks “Aanmelden” or “Login.” The supervisor’s research also found that spinstar.bet was searched 1,940 times from the Netherlands in January 2026.

The order holds JACO V.I.P. Limitada responsible for the offering because the site’s Terms of Use designate the company as the owner. According to the Costa Rican trade register entry cited in the order, the company is based in Jaco, in the Garabito canton of Puntarenas province. The company does not hold a Dutch licence to offer online games of chance.

By letters dated April 16, 2026, and May 28, 2026, the Ksa informed the company of its intention to impose the order and to publish it, giving the company four weeks to submit a view orally or in writing. No view was submitted.

Penalty Structure and Publication

The order requires the company to end the violation within four weeks of the decision date and to keep it ended. The obligation covers spinstar.bet, every other website owned or managed by the company, and any other activity, including gambling apps, that enables participation in unlicensed online games of chance from the Netherlands. Once the four-week term expires, the company forfeits €468,250 per week or part of a week, up to a maximum of €936,500.

The order derives that maximum from the roughly €800,000 in initial costs borne by licensed online operators, with structural annual costs put at a similar amount, plus an estimated €136,500 of gross gaming revenue over two weeks. Using a search-volume method it published on February 14, 2025, the Ksa estimated the company’s Dutch gross gaming revenue for January 2026 at €273,000; the order puts this at €68,250 per week and €136,500 over two weeks, applying a weekly search volume of 485 recorded for that month. The order states that the board weighed addiction prevention, vulnerable groups such as minors, a reliable game offering, safe payment traffic, and countering illegality and crime when setting the penalty.

In a publication decision, also dated August 20, 2026, and taken under the Open Government Act (Wet open overheid), the board cited informing and warning consumers, transparency about the regulator’s work, and preventive effect as reasons for publishing the sanction. The decision notes that playing at an unlicensed operator is itself an offence under the Betting and Gaming Act when the player knows that no licence was granted, and that publication is partly intended to keep consumers from committing an offence. The names of natural persons and of companies against which no violation was established are withheld. The decision stated that the decisions would be placed on the regulator’s website on September 17, 2026, at 11:00.

Objection against each decision is open for six weeks. Filing an objection does not suspend the order’s operation; a party with an urgent interest can apply to an administrative court for preliminary relief.