Spelinspektionen says the companies marketed online gambling at Swedes.

Sweden.- The Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen has prohibited three gambling operators from operating in the country. It says that it found EOD Code SRL, Igloo Ventures SRL and MIBS NV to be targeting marketing towards Swedish consumers without a local gambling licence.

The regulator said they used affiliates, advertising spaces on Swedish websites and influencers on Instagram and Twitch. The action follows similar prohibitions issued last month against Newera Frozen PTE Limited, Aprodi Limited and Galaktika NV.t.

It said: “We prioritise measures that contribute to gambling taking place with operators who have a Swedish gaming licence. The Swedish Gambling Authority therefore clarifies the grounds for our decisions to ban illegal online gambling by publishing these on our website.”

Scrutiny of More Tech Group

Meanwhile, Spelinspektionen has begun supervisory proceedings against the licensed gambling operator More Tech Group, which runs lottoexperten.se, lottoexperten.com and superlottoclub.com. It will probe whether the company has complied with regulatory obligations under Sweden’s Gambling Act, including gaining written consent for telephone sales, the ban on the promotion of gambling on credit, and verifying player identities against Spelpaus, the national self-exclusion register.

Fine against Kindred’s Spooniker 

Earlier this month, Spelinspektionen dealt a SEK 10m (€920,000) fine to Kindred Group’s Spooniker subsidiary for customer due diligence failings. The regulator said the size of the fine takes into account previous failings identified in 2022, which led to a review last year.

It said the operator had failed to complete sufficient verification of customers’ sources of funds, thereby increasing the risk of money laundering.

Spooniker argued that its customer risk classification system requires users to register via Sweden’s electronic identity verification system, Bank-ID, and that its verification process met regulatory standards in preliminary assessments. However, Spelinspektionen went ahead with the penalty following a review of customer transactions.