Sweden’s state-owned online gambling operator has to pay a SEK100m ($9.5m) fine for failing to protect its players. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

The state-owned online gambling operator in Sweden has to pay a SEK100m ($9.5m) fine for failing to properly protect its players. The investigation into Svenska Spel Sport & Casino by the country’s gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, looked at issues that took place between October and December 2021.

able to gamble excessively without proper protection or sufficient intervention

Users of the online gambling platform were able to gamble excessively without proper protection or sufficient intervention to prevent them from doing so after triggering heightened risk level alerts. In one specific case, a player who had self-excluded from the platform for a six-month period up until January 2021 was able to subsequently lose SEK1.3m ($123,112) despite having an income of just SEK433,000 ($41,005).

Svenska Spel Sport & Casino CEO Fredrik Wastenson said that the company takes the regulator’s “decision to heart” and noted that it has already addressed a lot of the issues, such as introducing income checks on big spenders and increased welfare checks.

Wastenson emphasized that the company did not agree with the overall assessment and will now decide if it wishes to appeal the decision or not.