Sweden’s gambling authority, Spelinspektionen, has fined Videoslots Ltd SEK9,000,000 (€761,363/$809,460) for anti-money laundering (AML) failures.
According to the announcement, the regulator first began monitoring the company’s work with regards to its AML protocols in late 2021. The investigation centered on how new and existing customers and their source of funds were identified and verified. This included how Videoslots manages a customer’s risk profile through its videoslots.com website.
The investigation found that Videoslots had failed to implement the correct customer knowledge measures. It also found that the company could not accurately assess the risk of its services being used for both money laundering and terrorist financing. Spelinspektionen found that the shortcomings were of such a serious nature that both a formal warning and financial penalty were necessary.
Videoslots fine fell just short of the maximum penalty for failing to comply with the Money Laundering Act in Sweden which is currently set at €1 million.
This brings the total fines for 2023 to more than €386.4 million with Spelinspektionen’s fines amounting to almost €8 million of that figure.
Second Fine of 2023 for Videoslots
In July of this year, the UK Gambling Commission issued Videoslots Limited with a £2 million (€2.3 million/$2.4 million) regulatory settlement for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. These included allowing one customer with an income of £60,000 (€70,100) to lose £98,000 (€114,500) within six months with no customer interactions.
Sweden Gambling Tax Hike
In its latest financial report Sweden’s gambling authority revealed that gambling operators generated SEK 6.7 billion (€562.8 million/ $602.8 million) in Q2 of 2023. Of that figure, 62.4% was generated by the online gambling industry.
Following the release of the report, the government proposed increasing the country’s current gambling tax rate of 18% to 22%. The new tax rate would come into force on July 1st 2024 and is expected to generate an additional SEK 540m ($48.2 million/€45.3 million) per year.
Gambling industry journalist with a background in online poker and trading. Covering the regulated U.S Sports industry and the exciting world of online poker.