SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Swedish lottery provider Folkspel Ideell Förening has been fined by Spelinspektionen for breaching the national policies around child protections.
The regulator found Folkspel to be in violation of the Swedish Gambling Act, resulting in a warning and subsequent penalty of SEK 500,000 (£37.3k) being issued.
Folkspel has been a licence holder since 2020 when it was granted the needed certification to target Swedish audiences with its lottery offering. The licence expires in September of this year.
Spelinspektionen initiated an investigation after receiving a tip of a minor participating in the operator’s Bingolotto draw in December last year.
Folkspel admitted this was the case in a letter written to Spelinspektionen in January, where the operator explained that at that point in time there were no existing technical procedures to verify the identity and therefore the age of those calling in to participate in the live Bingolotto game.
In March, Spelinspektionen asked Folkspel to perform an internal review of its age checks in place and report back with the results.
This led to the lottery operator introducing several amendments to its system, including the implementation of several technical extensions to its age verification procedures.
Still, the regulator did not shy away from criticising the infringement, stating: “Folkspel’s lack of routines for handling age control at the call-in stage at the time of the authority’s supervision has meant a risk that games may be provided to minors, which also happened in the current case.”
Due to the severity of the violation, Spelinspektionen was forced to issue the SEK 500,000 fine, which has been calculated according to Folkspel’s annual turnover.
