The Swedish gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, has undertaken a compliance review of AB Trav och Galopp, Svenska Spel Sport & Casino AB, and Lotto Direct Limited to assess their compliance with the notification obligation stipulated in Chapter 11, Section 3 of the country’s Gambling Act.
Chapter 11, section three of the Gambling Act requires licence holders to notify the gambling authority if they become aware of changes concerning their application or registration of a gambling agent.
“Supervision has been initiated to check compliance with the provision on the notification obligation according to Chapter 11, Section 3 of the Gambling Act (2018:1138),” noted Spelinspektionen in a statement.
“The provision means that when the licensee becomes aware of changes that have occurred in relation to an application or registration according to Section 2, the licensee must notify the gambling authority of the change.”
The gambling authority also revealed that once the review has been completed, it will publish the results and a link to a decision if intervention is necessary.
It’s also not the only time that Svenska Spel has faced off against Spelinspektionen, as the operator successfully challenged a SEK 100m penalty fee (approximately £7.7m) from the gambling authority for duty of care failures. The successful appeal led to Svenska Spel calling for “greater clarity” when it comes to Spelinspektionen’s interpretation of duty of care.
Within the decision on the case issued by Sweden’s Administrative Court in Linköping, it emphasised that it disagreed with the assessment of the regulator based on the “legality principle”, which states that an authority may only take measures that are supported by the legal order and that it must be “sufficiently clear” what individuals must do to avoid a penalty.
Earlier, the Swedish regulator handed out fines to TSG Interactive PLC (the Flutter Entertainment-owned operator of Pokerstars), Betsson Nordic Ltd and Snabbare Ltd for compliance failures tied to anti-money laundering shortcomings.
TSG Interactive was handed a SEK 7m penalty (approximately £538,000), while Betsson Nordic and Snabbare were issued penalties of SEK 6.5m and SEK 5.5m, respectively.
For each operator, the regulator claimed that they failed to carry out adequate due diligence related to AML, stating in each case: “The company has not collected sufficient information about where the money comes from.
“Therefore, they have not been able to understand and assess whether the customers’ activities and transactions have been legitimate or whether they have entailed a risk of money laundering.”
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