Global Gaming Fails to Follow Rules, Spelinspektionen Recalls Their License

After discovering “serious deficiencies” in the business practices of Global Gaming, Swedish gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen has revoked their operating license. A violation includes a variety of failings, mostly related to anti-money laundering measures and protection of players as well as…

… advocating responsibility while gambling. The regulator pointed out that Global violated a plethora of regulations, including Chapter 14 Section 7 of the Games Act, as well as Chapter 11 Section 3 and 5 of the Game Ordinance, and Chapter 9 Section 10 of its own regulations and general advice.

The holding company of Global, SafeEnt, is no longer allowed to operate in Sweden. This means Ninja Casino and Spellandet.com, which were both licensed in December 2018, will no longer provide online and sport betting services.

Failure to Respect Limits

As part of the investigation process, Global Gaming provided data to Spelinspektionen and the report revealed numerous breaches of regulations. The investigation encomed the activity of ten players in particular, who spent a considerable amount of money via Global Gaming’s brands, without any intervention by the operator. Just to remind…

… the operator must determine the source of the funds or address their high levels of spending. There are deposit limits set by the state, and all licensees are required to customers who set a monthly limit in excess of SEK10,000 (£838/€940/$1,053). However, the supplied data clearly showed none of the ten consumers were ed. To make the situation even worse, two of them lost between SEK50,000 and SEK1.1m in a single week.

The operator itted there was no active deposit limit until January 14th and on that date, introduced a flat monthly limit of SEK8,000. However, all the limits which were previously specified by players were reset, which meant they needed to change them manually.

Protection Against Excessive Gambling

The regulatory body also stressed numerous failures in of duty of care, which oblige licensees to protect consumers and help them reduce their gambling activities. In its assessment, the regulator said Global did not any of the ten customers regarding the problem. What’s even more…

…four of them opted to self-exclude via the Spelpaus national after the analysis period. While Global came up with a plan of action for dealing with problem gamblers that identified higher deposits and excessive playing time as risk indicators, the regulator stated that the operator failed to follow this plan.

Flaws in Anti-Money Laundering Measures

Global also failed to carry out a general risk assessment of its business, as required by the Swedish Money Laundering Act. Moreover, the operators also didn’t conduct proper checks on customers to make sure they were not using its service…

…for money laundering. As far as the regulator clarified, high amounts deposited and wagered by the ten consumers should have signaled the operator to investigate them and determine the source of their funds.

Customer (Un)Awareness

The supplier was also found to have failed to follow rules on customer awareness. Swedish licensees are required to establish a relationship with players that deposit amounts exceeding SEK2,000. However, the operator did not have sufficient knowledge regarding any of the ten audited customers. Despite their extensive gambling, the company did not check whether they have had the means to play to the extent that has been done.

The regulatory body also identified failings in of bonuses. Licensed operators can only offer bonuses to players when they first sign up to use their services. However, the operator was found to have been running a number of initiatives that directly breach these regulations. This included weekly cash drops, daily slot tournaments, mystery prizes, and random sweepstakes.

Revoking the License

“Due to the fact that the company has not fulfilled what is required regarding the requirements for duty of care and deposit limits, it has violated some of the most central parts of the game law which are aimed at protecting the player against excessive gambling. SafeEnt has described what measures it intends to take to correct the deficiencies, but the Spelinspektionen considers that the measures are not sufficient, and notes that SafeEnt lacks understanding of important parts of the regulations that govern the operations.”

Source:

“Swedish regulator revokes Global Gaming license”, igamingbusiness.com, June 17, 2019.