Swedish Watchdog Chases Down Non-Compliant Gambling Providers and Developers

While most people think of March as a month for Easter-themed casino games, loads of sweet treats, and a precursor to April Fool's shenanigans, that was not the case for the fine folk at Sweden's Gambling Inspectorate.

Rather than resting on their laurels, Spelinspektionen spent early March planning a swift and uncompromising blow against online casinos and betting sites, which have not kept pace with the current gambling compliance regulations.

 Breaking The Rules Has Consequences

According to the official postings on the Spelinspektionen website, the regulator cracked down on several well-known gambling operators and one highly regarded casino software provider in March 2024.

• Yggdrasil Gaming Limited was found guilty of allowing an unlicensed casino to offer its games of chance in Sweden. Since 1 July 2023, this has been illegal for a licensed provider, and as such, they received a warning and were fined SEK 300,000 (€25,961.75).
• Newera Frozen PTE Limited and Aprodi Ltd were officially banned from operating in Sweden for providing skin-betting games without a license. The gambling regulator has ruled that skin betting puts Swedish youth at risk and has banned this specific type of lottery game.
• Gaming operator Galaktika NV and all its online casino brands were also banned from operating in Sweden for offering unregulated online slots and table games. The company was also found to target Swedes with welcome bonuses and other promotions to entice them to deposit real money at the casino.

According to the Gambling Inspectorate, they are improving the tools and processes that allow them to uncover and pursue unlicensed gambling sites and promotions. This is to both protect local players and ensure that casinos with a Swedish License are able to thrive.

Spelinspektionen Is Not Playing Favourites

The regulator has been very active in reigning in black market operators who intentionally target Swedish players using Swedish-language landing pages and promotions offering bonuses in Swedish Krone.

However, their attention has been on more than just international operators. The regulator announced on 25 March 2024 that it had audited Svenska Spel Sport & Casino AB and found that the operator had “not taken sufficient measures to protect the players against excessive gambling”. It added that it had also failed to “help them to reduce their gambling when there was reason to do so”.

Finding that Svenska Spel Sport & Casino AB had, therefore, failed its duty of care as per Chapter 14, Section 1 of the Gaming Act has resulted in the operator receiving a warning to address these shortcomings and a fine of SEK 100 million (€8.65 million).