Sweden's Gambling Regulator Imposes a Financial Fine Against Lottoland Parent Company, United Lottery Solutions

Spelinspektionen, gambling regulator in charge of the online industry in Sweden’s regulated market, has ruled that operator, Lottoland, violated the country’s laws on lottery betting and has, as a result, issued a financial penalty of $73,304 and a word of warning to United Lottery Solutions, Lottoland’s parent company.

According to the official ruling notice, United Lottery Solutions was found in breach of Swedish gambling law according to which only public entities or the state itself are permitted to run lottery games. The operator’s mistake was in that they were offering betting on the outcome of various lottery games such as Eurojackpot via Lottoland.se.

Several Decisive Errors

The regulator has further elaborated on its decision…

…by stating that it did not grant permission to United Lottery Solutions to offer betting on its lotteries.

Also under Swedish laws, operators are permitted to offer betting on lotteries run outside of Sweden – something the United Lottery Solutions does. Their omission was in that they did not properly explain to Swedish players that they do not partake in lotteries as it is, but they just bet on the outcome of them.

Spelinspektionen’s license also does not cover scratchcard games and United Lottery Solutions has been offering this form of gambling to Sweden’s customers as well. The regulator deems these violations “very serious” because of the prolonged period of time during which they took place…

…although the operator has, in all fairness, stopped offering lotteries and scratchcards to players in this Scandinavian country since.

Clearing Out the Misunderstanding

The penalty fee is based on “the severity of infringement and operator’s turnover on Swedish market,” according to Spelinpektionen. Nigel Birrell, chief at Lottoland, said that the company is currently in ongoing communications with the regulator regarding this issue.

There have been similar cases such as these in past weeks…

…with the most recent being the case of Global Gaming, whose license has been fully revoked by the regulator for concerns over failing anti-money laundering processes. The operator has decided to dispute this decision and will appeal against it.

Non-abiding Operators and Troubled Young Adults

Not long before that, AG Communications Limited and Genesis Global also got fined for not adhering to rules in regards to offering bonuses to Swedish customers. Their respective penalties were SEK500,000 and SEK1.7 million.

“As the Spelinspektionen already had indications at the beginning of the year that some gaming companies did not comply with the legislation, on February 19, the authorities issued a letter to all licensees regarding bonus offers. After the letter, the Gaming Inspectorate noted some compliance from the licensees, but the assessment is that further measures must also be taken to achieve full compliance,” read the official Spelinspektionen press release.

On another note, the country’s Spelpaus of self-excluded individuals is mostly comprised of young adults. This was revealed to the public by the regulator who said that almost half of people who applied for the are between 25 and 34 years of age.

Source:

“Swedish regulator penalises Lottoland operator”, igamingbusiness.com, June 19, 2019.