Finnish teenager defrauds online casino out of €250,000

A Finnish teenager and his parents are being prosecuted by Finnish authorities after it was revealed he circumvented operator payment software to fraudulently withdraw funds totalling €250,000 from an unnamed Malta-based online casino.

Using the online casino software under a fake date of birth, the teenager discovered a loophole which allowed him to cancel customers’ pending withdrawal requests and instead transfer that money to an online wallet rather than the customer’s bank account.

Using this loophole, the teenager reportedly made 147 withdrawal requests in one month, totalling €250,000 before casino employees discovered the error and changed the software in July 2017.

The unnamed teenager, who is now 18 years old and was arrested on charges of aggravated fraud, faces up to 20 months in prison. The father has been charged with aggravated money laundering, for which prosecutors are seeking a five-month suspended sentence, while the mother is also charged with money laundering offences, but reportedly faces a “more lenient suspended sentence”.

The name of the online casino targeted by the teen has not been revealed but the case comes less than a month after the Malta Gaming Act came into force. The new act includes new provisions taken from the EU’s fourth AML directive and revised regulations on financial fraud.

Finnish prosecutors have also charged the child’s parents as accomplices after it was revealed that €14,000 of the misappropriated funds ended up in the teenagers’ father’s bank account and a €2,300 went into that of teenager’s mother.

Prosecutors also allege that the teenagers’ mother had purchased a €5,000 motorbike with the stolen money. The case which is being heard at the Häme District Court, will conclude early next month.