Swedish state-owned gambling operator AB Svenska Spel has been penalised by the country’s gambling regulator Spelinspektionen over licensing failures.
After investigating a potential regulatory breach, the gambling authority found that Svenska Spel had a number of slot machine games in venues for which it did not have the necessary licences for.
Following a request for comment, AB Svenska Spel revealed that there has been a ‘misunderstanding’ in the process.
The reason being that certain bingo halls where the machines were found had changed their physical address, with Svenska Spel being a licence holder only for the first location.
While the case goes back to September 2023, it was not until April 2024 that AB Svenska Spel received confirmation of the previous sites’ termination of contracts.
In a response, Svenska Spel commented: “As of 2019, the licences for bingo were not location-bound. AB Svenska Spel’s view was that the move could be carried out, as the bingo licences were not location-bound, but a notification of a change of address regarding cash machines would have to be made to the Gaming Authority.
“In light of this, AB Svenska Spel has interpreted the situation as meaning that the machines could go with them to the new address to which a bingo hall moved.
“AB Svenska Spel has stated that after the Gambling Inspectorate’s letter, it understood that they had made an incorrect interpretation of how moving machines in bingo halls with a licence that is not location-bound should be reported to the Gambling Inspectorate.
“AB Svenska Spel got the impression that only an address change was required in the licences, which according to AB Svenska Spel’s interpretation could be done via email.
“AB Svenska Spel had talks with the Gambling Inspectorate in the fall of 2020 and in September 2023, when nothing came up that led AB Svenska Spel to make a different interpretation or that a notification about moving host machines must be done in a certain way.”
The response continues with Svenska Spel explaining that following a careful evaluation in March 2024, it manually amended its system to accommodate certain gambling regulation changes from July last year that should have been implemented automatically.
As a result, the company corrected itself by shutting down all affected machines and listing them for removal from the venues, complying with Spelinspektionen’s request.
However, Svenska Spel was still sanctioned by the regulator with a total of SEK2m (£148.8k).
This is not the first time when the state-owned company has been financially reprimanded by the government authority, with both entities locking horns again earlier in March.
Back then, the company was given a penalty of SEK100m over alleged player protection shortcomings.