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Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court has denied the appeals of several gambling operators to further reduce fines imposed by the national gambling regulator for various compliance violations over the past three years.
The appeals of six Swedish-licensed operators first fined in 2021 finally reached the end of the road last week, when the Supreme Administrative Court rejected their appeals on December 13.
As a result, evoke's Mr. Green Ltd. must pay a penalty of SEK1.5m ($135,000) for anti-money laundering failures and a further SEK12m ($1.09m) for lack of diligence and duty of care.
Kindred subsidiary Spooniker Ltd has been penalised SEK30m ($2.72m) over regulatory violations that date back to 2019. The Swedish Gambling Authority initially sought to apply a SEK100m penalty for offering unauthorised bonuses and lottery games, but that amount was halved from SEK50m by an administrative court when it decided that Kindred's “recruit a friend” campaign did not count as a bonus.
An appeals court further reduced the penalty to SEK30m earlier this year after determining that the calculation of the penalty based on the law was incorrect.
ComeOn Group’s four brands — Snabbare, Hajper, ComeOn Sweden and Casinostugan — also had their appeals to the Supreme Administrative Court denied.
Snabbare Ltd was fined SEK24m ($2.18m) after providing both cash deposits and free bets in a bonus scheme. Although the Supreme Court appeal was denied, the original penalty fee was reduced by the Court of Appeals in May.
Hajper Ltd was also fined for bonus offers and lack of duty of care. The penalty was first reduced in 2022 to SEK40m ($3.36m). It was once again reduced by the Court of Appeals in 2024 to SEK14m ($2.14m).
ComeOn Sweden Ltd committed the same violation of offering unauthorised bonuses via cash deposits, which was deemed to be a breach of its duty of care. In the appeal process, the operator also managed to have its penalty fee reduced based on existing guidelines to SEK13m (1.18m).
Finally, Casinostugan Ltd will pay SEK8m ($725,000) in penalty fees for the same breach of rules — unauthorised bonuses through cash deposits and free games.
The operator's penalty fee was reduced back in May by the Court of Appeals from SEK25m ($2.27m) due to existing guidelines on penalties.
