The Swedish Gambling Authority (Spelinspektionen) recently imposed administrative fines totaling 19 million Swedish kronor (approximately 2 million US dollars) on Betsson Nordic, Snabbare, and TSG Interactive for failing to comply with the Gambling Act's regulations regarding customer deposits.
Specifically, Betsson Nordic was fined 6.5 million Swedish kronor, Snabbare was fined 5.5 million Swedish kronor, and TSG Interactive received the highest fine of 7 million Swedish kronor. In addition, all three companies received official anti-money laundering compliance warnings.
The regulatory body noted that these operators failed to adequately collect and verify information on the source of customer funds, were unable to effectively determine the legality of the funds, and failed to identify potential money laundering risks.
Betsson Case
A 20-year-old customer deposited a total of 133,584 Swedish kronor through 181 transactions in one month, but Betsson treated these deposits as previous winnings without adequate risk assessment, thus classifying the risk level as low.
Another 23-year-old customer deposited 271,699 Swedish kronor over four months, after which Betsson removed the risk warnings from the account, claiming it was "to avoid disturbing the customer."
The fifth customer deposited 491,950 Swedish kronor from September to December 2023, despite having an annual income of only 310,000 Swedish kronor, but Betsson explained these deposits as bonus earnings.
Snabbare Case
A customer deposited a total of 3.24 million Swedish kronor in 267 transactions from January to August 2023, triggering alerts multiple times but these were dismissed because "the customer's profit status was good," until due diligence was intensified in March.
Another customer continued to deposit 3.04 million Swedish kronor within a year of self-exclusion, although alerts were triggered, no measures were taken.
The fifth customer had already deposited 1.28 million Swedish kronor before Snabbare conducted an income verification, with an annual income of 308,700 Swedish kronor. This customer is now self-excluded through Spelpaus but continues to make deposits.
TSG Interactive Case
In most cases, TSG's system failed to alert to customer deposit behaviors, and the operator did not implement necessary due diligence.
Customers were allowed to continue gaming for months using multiple credit cards without needing to submit additional information.
It is worth noting that since these violations occurred before the revision of the Gambling Act, the maximum fine amount is limited to 1 million euros (approximately 1.14 million US dollars).
This penalty comes at a time when the Swedish Gambling Authority is intensifying its regulatory efforts, having recently banned three other illegal operators. The regulatory body emphasized that it will continue to increase efforts to ensure industry compliance and protect player rights.
