Illegal gambling mafia hijacks well-known domain names: victims include entrepreneurs and gamblers

Imagine this: you search Google for an old company you remember. Just to check if they still exist. You click on the link and boom, you’re surrounded by flashing banners for illegal gambling sites. 

Sounds bizarre? It really happens. And increasingly so.

Criminals buy trusted domain names for dirty tricks

In the Netherlands, more and more old websites are being given a new lease of life. Not as a tribute or nostalgic page, but as an advertising column for dodgy casinos. The gambling mafia is striking. They buy up expired domain names from well-known companies. And what do they do with them? They put up a kind of intermediate page, full of links to dubious gambling sites. The more clicks, the more money they earn.

From party venue to dodgy gambling site – how is this possible?

Take the Arjan van Dijk Group, for example. For years, this company organised weddings and parties in Brabant. Everyone knew them. Until corona threw a spanner in the works. The business went bankrupt. The website became available. And now it has been hijacked.

Anyone who types in the company’s name now will not see a party venue or nice photos, but bold buttons with texts such as “Win a £500 bonus now!”. You would almost think that Arjan himself had started a gambling empire.

“I tried to get the name back, but it was a hassle.”

Arjan van Dijk is disappointed. He sold his company back in 1996, but his name remained associated with the events industry for a long time. Until it really ended in 2020. 

“I tried to get that name back, but it was a real hassle,” he says. 

The domain name was registered to the buyer. After the bankruptcy, it became available and was sold on. 

“Apparently that’s what happened,” he says resignedly.

And the worst part? There’s nothing he can do about it. 

“Fortunately, people who are really looking for me can still find me in other ways.”

The authorities are watching, but they can’t do anything

“We would prefer to take immediate action,” says a spokesperson. “But that is not yet permitted.” 

So the pages remain online. And the money tap for the gambling mafia remains open.

Google inadvertently contributes to the problem

What makes it even worse is that these old websites continue to rank highly in Google. Because they were once popular. And Google apparently still thinks: ‘This site is reliable.’ But in the meantime, the content has completely changed. From party venue to dodgy gambling advertising.

According to Frank Kruit, gambling journalist at Meneer Casino, this is the crux of the problem. 

“Google continues to favour these domains in its search results. Every click to an illegal site earns the new owner money. The system works in their favour.”

Well-known names are being misused without anyone noticing

And Arjan is by no means the only one. Take Scheer & Foppen, for example. Once a well-known electronics store, they too have gone bankrupt. And their domain name has now been changed to a shady redirect page to gambling sites. 

“Sometimes criminals buy such domain names. Sometimes they just hack them,” says Kruit.

And yes, that’s not only annoying, it’s dangerous. People trust the name, click through, and end up on an illegal gambling platform without even realising it.

Illegal gambling sites don’t care about anything

Since 2021, there have been 31 legal online casinos in the Netherlands. Think of Toto or Holland Casino. They have to adhere to strict rules: no minors, no excessive betting, and help with gambling addiction. But the bad sites? They just do their thing. No rules, no control. Anything goes.And so, without knowing it, people click through to sites where everything revolves around making a profit. Not for the player, but for the owner of the site. In Belgium, too, websites are regularly hacked and used for illegal gambling promotions.