AG Communications and Genesis Global have again fallen foul of the Spelinspektionen, as the Swedish regulator issues more bonus related punishments.
Each licence holder has been found to have violated Swedish gambling legislation by informing players of the possibility of receiving recurring bonuses on their websites.
As a result AG Communications, which operates karamba.com, hopa.com, mrplay.com, goliathcasino.com, spinson.com, magicred.com, toptally.com, barbadoscasino.com, lanadas.com, casinoluck.com, vikingslots.com, primeslots.com and slotjerry.com, has been issued with a SEK 500,00 (£41,757) penalty, with Genesis Global’s punishment standing at SEK 1.7m (£141,975).
Earlier this year AG Communications were found to have violated self- exclusion rules, including a failure to implement its national register Spelpaus.se, for which the Spelinspektionen issued a penalty fee of SEK 3m (£247,000) as well as a warning into future conduct.
This followed Genesis and Paf Consulting being found to have committed similar offences, receiving penalty fees of SEK 4m (£329,427) and SEK 100,000 (£8,235) respectively.
Regarding the latest punishments, the regulator stated: “According to the game law, an offer of more than one bonus is sufficient for the license holder to violate the bonus clause.
“The fact that the licensees stated that they did not issue bonuses to the customers does not mean that the bonus provision has not been violated.
“Already an offer poses a high risk from a gaming responsibility perspective since the offer itself has been able to attract players with problems to games.”
The Spelinspektionen’s Spelpaus has also recently passed the 35,000 mark of banned players, with it also revealed that the number of shut-downs increased by almost 2,800 people in May while 40 per cent of all people suspended are between 25 and 34 years of age.
The national register was launched when the new gaming act came into force on the first day of 2019, making it mandatory that all gaming companies with a Swedish license join the national self-shutdown scheme.
