Spelinspektionen has lived up to its promise to punish severely those who violate Sweden’s newly enforced gambling law. The regulator announced today that it has slapped two more fines to operators that were found to have tried to circumvent the existing strict rules.
AG Communications Limited and Genesis Global Limited were recently fined by Spelinspektionen for violations of Sweden’s rules for offering bonuses to local customers. Both online gambling companies hold licenses from the regulator and are authorized to operate in the recently re-organized online gaming market of the Scandinavian nation.
Under Sweden’s gambling law, licensed operators are only permitted to offer one-time bonuses to new customers when they sign up with them. Any other bonus or other similar incentive offered to gamblers is considered a violation of the rules.
Both AG Communications and Genesis were spotted to have done exactly that. As a result, AG Communications got a SEK500,000 (approx $52,722) penalty from Spelinspektionen, while the other operator was fined SEK1.7 million (approx. $180,000).
AG Communications operates the Karamba and Casino Luck online casinos, among a dozen of other brands, while Genesis is the operator of the Vegas Hero and Sloty online casinos, among others. Aside from fines, the two companies also received warnings by the Swedish gambling regulator. Spelinspektionen has previously said that repeated violations of Sweden’s gambling law could even cost operators their licenses.
Repeated Violators
In March, Genesis was slapped a SEK4 million fine (approx. $430,000) for failing to establish a “functioning connection” with Sweden’s self-exclusion registry – Spelpaus.se – which was launched on January 1, 2019, the exact day on which the country’s new gambling law was adopted.
Under the newly implemented rules, each licensee is required to join the country’s self-exclusion program and to ensure that gamblers who voluntarily ban themselves from gambling are prevented from accessing regulated websites.
Early into the launch of the self-exclusion tool, Genesis was found to have failed to prevent self-excluded customers from gambling on its websites. In April, AG Communications got a SEK3 million (approx. $321,000) fine for similar violations.
Spelinspektionen said last week that more than 35,000 Swedes have signed up to the Spelpaus.se self-exclusion registry since its launch in January.
It is also important to note that Genesis and AG Communications were not the only operators to get punished by Spelinspektionen for bonus offer violations. Last month, the regulator fined Betway and Mandalorian Technologies (NoAccountCasino.com and PrankCasino.com) for treating customers to multiple incentives, even though this is strictly forbidden under local regulations. Betway got a SEK5 million fine (approx. $518,500), while Mandalorian was fined SEK9 million (approx. $933,000) for its violations.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the day’s top casino news stories.
