Swedish gambling regulator fines LeoVegas and ATG
The Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has slapped both operators with SEK2m (€197,000) fines.
Sweden.- The national regulator Spelinspektionen has fined LeoVegas SEK2m (€197,000) due to anti-money laundering (AML) failings and ATG the same amount over bonus violations.
The fine issued against LeoVegas comes after the Swedish regulator asked for information on its 15 customers with the highest winnings from the launch of the Swedish online gambling market in January 2019 to November 30 of the same year.
The regulator found that for 11 of those customers that it deemed to present a risk of money laundering, information in customers’ files, such as estimates of the values of their home and cars, were misdated and in one case were missing completely.
The files also lacked information on whether LeoVegas had checked if the customers were politically exposed and/or where their funds came from.
The regulator found that LeoVegas, which operates the Sweden-licensed igaming sites gogocasino.com and leovegas.com, had violated the Anti-Money Laundering Act’s rules on documentation and data retention.
It also said that LeoVegas had miscategorised some players’ risk levels, and that at least two of the players that were categorised as low or medium risk should have been categorised as high risk.
LeoVegas said that checks were carried out by a third party and that the dates recorded were those on which the documents were reviewed and saved, not entered.
It said that the risk level of some of the players had been lowered because they had made large winnings, which accounted for their funds.
The Stockholm-listed igaming group has launched an appeal against the fine, arguing that Spelinspektion only reviewed its AML frameworks once in 2019. It said it has since rectified any shortcomings.
It said: “LeoVegas is continually developing its policies to ensure compliance, and had already, before today’s decision, changed and updated its customer due diligence routines.
“LeoVegas intends to appeal today’s decision in order to allow a court to review the matter and give the entire industry further guidance on how the current regulation is to be interpreted.”
ATG fined for violating bonus rules
The Swedish regulator has also issued a fine of SEK2m to ATG for breaching Sweden’s temporary rules on bonuses, which allow operators to only offer bonuses as introductory offers.
The operator had self-reported a breach through which, for 48 hours in October, players who bought bingo tokens received free extra tokens.
Some 43 players took up the offer, with the total value of free tokens reaching SEK1,960 (€194).
ATG accepted the sanction. It said it had informed its third-party bingo supplier about the rules and had taken steps to remedy the mistake.
Maria Allmér, head of casino at ATG, said: “It is a matter of course for us to report to the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate when we discover that we have made a mistake. We regret what happened and accept the decision and the penalty fee.”
Fines issued by Spelinspektionen are based on operator’s revenue from the past year. Last year, ATG was sanctioned alongside Kindred Group for breaching Sweden’s temporary deposit restrictions for online casino products.
Earlier this week, ATG reported an 11 per cent rise in revenue year-on-year for Q1
