Swedish gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, has fined two betting operators for breaching self-exclusion rules. Genesis received a punishment of SEK4m (€329,000/€382,00/€431,900) and an official warning. Another operator based on Aland Islands – Paf – received a SEK100,000 fine.
According to the Swedish regulation, which came into force in January, local betting operators should be blocking access to users who have opted in for the self-exclusion scheme, Spelpaus.se. Licenses holders are also forbidden to contact these customers for marketing purposes.
On this occasion, a number of self-excluded users noticed that they are still able to access betting sites operated by Genesis and Paf. At the moment, Genesis runs several local gambling sites including Sloty.com, Vegashero.com, Spel.com, Casinojoy.com, Casinocruise.com, Spinit.com, Casinogods.com and Pelaa.com. On the other hand, Paf works with two casinos - Paf.com and Paf.se.
The Swedish gambling regulator handed out several official warnings to local operators. Genesis has been contacted several times with serious notifications about the possible sanctions. The provider mentioned that they completely integrated with the local registry. In addition, it accused the third party’s system for existing problems. Based on its claims, the third-party system failed to incorporate Spelpaus.se rules which resulted in serious issues.
Genesis also mentioned that the platform compensated all affected players. They closed all accounts in the initial phase and protected users from possible problems. Further on they noticed:
“Genesis always takes compliance and responsible gambling at the core of its business operations in order to ensure a safe gaming environment to its players. Therefore, any regulatory requirements and guidelines are being treated as the highest priority.”
The Swedish betting regulator started to threaten gambling operators at the beginning of the year. Since the launch of the new regulatory framework, Spelinspektionen has constantly warned operators to adjust their systems with existing regulation. Possible sanctions are termination of licenses or fines:
“If the gaming companies fail to check and stop players who have self-excluded, it can be considered a serious violation of the regulations, which could mean that the gaming company will lose its license.”
Earlier this year, the AG Communications operator also received a warning for the same thing. The subsidiary of Aspire global currently runs several sites like Karamba.com, vikingslots.com, primeslots.com, slotjerry.com, hopa.com, magicred.com, toptally.com, barbadoscasino.com, mrplay.com, goliathcasino.com, spinson.com, lanadas.com and casinoluck.com.
Source:
“Genesis and Paf fined over Swedish self-exclusion failings”, igamingbusiness.com, March 22, 2019.