Spelinspektionen Fines Two Gambling Operators for Self-Exclusion Violations

The Swedish Gambling Authority has moved to show its licensees that it was pretty serious with its warnings to punish all violations of Sweden’s new gambling law, which took effect on January 1, 2019

Spelinspektionen today announced that it has fined two online gambling license holders over failures to comply with the nation’s strict self-exclusion rules. Genesis Global Limited and Paf Consulting Corporation were each slapped a hefty penalty and a warning by the Swedish gambling regulator for failing to prevent self-excluded players from gambling on their websites.

Genesis, which was licensed to operate multiple Sweden-facing online casinos, including Casino Joy, Casino Cruise, Sloty, and Vegas Hero, was fined SEK4,000,000 (approximately $432,341) for its failures. As for Paf, it was slapped a SEK100,000 fine (approximately $10,808). The company operates the paf.com and paf.se in the newly re-organized Swedish market.

As mentioned above, both license holders have failed to secure the socially responsible provision of online gambling services to Swedish customers, which is one of the main rules licensed operators need to follow in order to be allowed to serve local customers.

Self-Exclusion Failures

Sweden’s new gambling law took effect on January 1. As part of the reorganization of its market, the country also launched a self-exclusion tool enabling gamblers who want to abstain from gambling for a certain period of time to register with the system and be prevented from wagering money on all locally licensed casino and betting websites.

All licensed operators are required to have a “functioning connection” to Spelhaus.se, the nation’s self-exclusion register, and to make sure that self-excluded gamblers are protected and are not given the chance to gamble on their websites.

Following the launch of the self-exclusion website in January, Spelinspektionen was contacted by customers who found they were able to gamble on a number of websites, even though they had opted to self-exclude. Genesis was one of the license holders that was found to have failed to integrate its Swedish operations into the country’s self-exclusion system.

The company informed Spelinspektionen that it detected the issue and promised to address it timely. Genesis integrated its Swedish operation with the register following the scolding from the local regulator and reimbursed the affected players.

Spelinspektionen warned back then that it would terminate the licenses of companies that fail to comply with the nation’s self-exclusion requirements and impose heavy fines on violators. The regulator also clarified that a penalty would not exceed 10% of a company’s turnover from Swedish gamblers.

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