Behind the glittering façade of software provider Delasport in the Office X business park in Sofia, Bulgaria, are dozens or even hundreds of gambling websites. They are also targeting countries in the EU where gambling is actually strictly regulated and are attracting consumers there. This has been reported by several European media outlets that have analyzed the “Casino Papers” in a joint investigation, which include tens of thousands of leaked documents from the industry. The operators of online portals with a high addictive factor are therefore hardly accessible to regulators on the old continent: Letterbox companies in Malta and Curaçao reportedly play a decisive role in concealing the owners.

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Regulatory authorities and consumers from countries such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands regularly complain about the network of relevant websites and feel cheated and exploited on a large scale. According to analyzes by Follow the Money, Sveriges Radio, Der Standard, ORF and The Shift, even users who have been placed on national self-exclusion lists due to a declared gambling addiction are allowed to continue gambling on sites such as Casinowinbig, 18Bet, 1Bet and Palmslots. They put their losses at tens and hundreds of thousands of euros.

The structures behind the illegal gambling offers are not transparent. Public sources such as Curaçao’s commercial register show on paper which service providers operate the letterbox companies on the island. However, they do not reveal the clients. The casino leaks shed more light on the darkness. The Israeli businessman Avi Shemesh, who owns Delasport, also owns the Maltese letterbox company Shark77 Limited. This in turn operates three online casinos that are on the radar of the gambling authorities in European countries. In 2023, for example, the Dutch regulator imposed a fine of around 900,000 euros on the company for operating 18Bet.com in the Netherlands without a license.

Lawsuits against the addiction business model

The Curaçao letterbox companies Bellona and NewEra are reportedly owned by Ilan Shemesh, who is also from Israel. The two companies operate dozens of other gambling sites that have European inspectors on their tail. The reporters were unable to clarify whether the two men with the same surname are related. However, the leaked papers showed that Delasport’s management signed contracts relating to the online casinos and were informed about or even directly involved in disputes with supervisory authorities and legal proceedings brought by players against the sites. Spanish and Dutch regulators have already imposed fairly high fines on the operators. However, they have not received any money. Instead, at least the Spanish market is currently no longer being served by the operators.

According to the documents, the hard-to-stop operators have so far achieved the highest turnover in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Denmark. According to the documents, Germany was by far the largest market. In 2022, the German gambling authority complained in a letter about twelve Bellona locations on Curaçao and threatened to impose fines and prison sentences if the locations remained accessible from Germany. This has also achieved little so far. All Delasport has said is that its own business activities are conducted “in strict compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and license conditions in the countries in which we are licensed”. At the same time, lawsuits are being filed by players: “We are currently preparing many cases against Bellona in Curaçao,” said German specialist lawyer Marc Ellerbrock. “The business model is not gambling, but addiction.”

(vbr)