Swedish court more than halves gambling regulator’s fine against Mr Green

The reduction was made based on the Supreme Administrative Court’s guiding ruling.

Sweden.- The Court of Appeal has reduced a fine that the gambling regulator Spelinspektionen issued against Mr Green in 2021. It found that the regulator was right to issue a fine but that the amount should be reduced to align with the Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling on how penalty fees should be calculated.

Spelinspektionen had issued two fines totalled SEK31.5m (€2.7m) for anti-money laundering (AML) and duty of care failures following a review of 15 accounts. It found that the operator had made insufficient contact with customers who made large deposits and lost more than their declared taxable income over several years. The total amount of the fines has been reduced to SEK12m.

Last month, a fine against Kindred’s Spooniker subsidiary was reduced by SEK 70m (€6.1m) to SEK 30m (€2.6m). The fine was issued due to breaches of bonus rules that occurred in 2019. Under Sweden’s Gambling Act, operators can only offer a customer one single bonus offer on sign-up. However, Spelinspektionen found that Spooniker, whose brands include Unibet, iGame, Maria Casino, bingo.com and Storspelare, had offered tournament rewards, prize draws and loyalty promotions that represented financial incentives and could be considered as bonuses. 

In April, the Danish gambling regulator Spillemyndigheden issued three injunctions against Mr Green for breaches of the country’s Money Laundering Act. It said it had identified deficiencies in risk assessments, defective business processes and a lack of documentation. It has also taken legal action over failure to report suspicions of money laundering.