The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate (Spelinspektionen) has issued warnings and fines to four gaming companies for repeatedly offering bonuses which is a breach of local gaming laws.
The investigation found that the four companies — Casinostugan, ComeOn Sweden, Hajper Ltd and Snabbare Ltd. — had repeatedly offered cash bonuses to registered players who had taken a break from gambling.
Excerpts of email exchanges between the players and the companies were released by Spelinspektionen.
In one exchange, a player explains that they had lost over SEK 100,000 (€9,961) and was then encouraged to place more bets with a bonus of SEK 500 (€49).
In another exchange, a player explains that they lost SEK 100,000 (€9,961) in the previous month and SEK 5,000 (€498) the day before.
Spelinspektionen decided that as these breaches of online gambling laws were quite serious and showed a complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of customers.
As a result, all four companies were warned to amend their behaviour and issued with fines. The amount of each fine was dependent on the number of violations and could be as much as 10% of the company’s annual revenue.
The fines issued were as follows:
Casinostugan — SEK 25 million (€2.49m)
ComeOn Sweden — SEK 35 million (€3.4m)
Hajper Ltd — SEK 50 million (€4.9m)
Snabbare Ltd — SEK 65 million (€6.4m)
This is the second time in less than a month that the Swedish Gaming Authority has fined iGaming companies. In January, Spelinspektionen fined Videoslots for violating a government mandated deposit cap.
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