• Betsson Affiliate Manager Hit With Money Laundering Charges

    29 November 2015

    Money laundering

    The affiliate portion of the online gambling industry is important to understand as a player because it's supposed to be a mutually-beneficial relationship. The affiliate offers up a lot of helpful information that you can use to find a trustworthy place to play and maximize your chances of winning, and the gambling sites you are referred to give that affiliate a small piece of their profits in exchange for bringing players to their sites. One affiliate manager for Betsson has gotten himself in trouble, however, for money laundering and other charges.

    How It Was Thought to Work

    Here's how the alleged scam was thought to work. Dutch affiliate manager Christiaan Alexander Van Dalen has been accused of making websites with online gambling information on them and then "re-tagging" Betsson traffic so that it appeared that new players came through his websites (when they really didn't). This re-tagging process mainly just involves editing existing player information to change their records on how the player found Betsson. Normally when players come through an affiliate website, the affiliate is paid for that player, and that's what Van Dalen was banking on.

    The Wife Situation

    This affiliate manager was using an account in his wife's name to funnel the funds, and this created a tricky situation for the courts. They needed to freezer her assets to maximize the chances of recovering as much of the €150,000+ that was thought to have been stolen in this way. However, she very clearly had no idea what was going on, and outside of possibly being a fan of slots or casino table games herself, she had nothing to do with the business.

    Some in the court argued that it wouldn't be fair to freeze her assets. However, the judge ruled otherwise while deciding that she would have access to a few thousand euros of her funds so that she could continue on normally. This seems to be a reasonable compromise.

    For now, it's looking like the trial is going to be a pretty big deal. This type of fraud is not looked on favorably at all in the industry because the bond between the affiliate and the player has to be rock-solid, and anything that could shake that confidence is frowned upon.