Spelinspektionen bans three gambling sites in Sweden

The Swedish Gaming Authority has gone after three websites in Sweden which have been operating without the necessary licenses. The companies named in an official press release include Newera Frozen PTE Limited, Galaktika NV, and Aprodi Ltd. The regulator established that all three entities operated websites that accepted Swedish players although they had not received a permit from the Spelinspektionen to operate gambling products on the territory of the country.

Two of the websites were found to offer skin gambling, which is prohibited, and has been causing a lot of controversy on a regulatory level, as watchdogs and lawmakers believe skin betting leads to addiction in children.

Newera Frozen operated hellcase dot com on the Swedish gambling market and offered skins for some of the most popular games involved in the skin trading and gambling ecosystem, including Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Rust.

Spelinspektionen explained that the website had a Swedish language version in which it explained how its offer worked and how players could use Swedish-based payment providers.

Newera has denied wrongdoing and said that it was by no means a gambling service of any sort, and further noted that skills could not be sold for real money, but Spelinspektionen did not accept this argument, and argued that skins do have real money value and are considered gambling.

Newera has accepted this final ruling and removed all of its materials that could lead to Swedish players using the website.

Aprodi Ltd was involved in a similar case. Spelinspektionen alleged that the key drop dot com website operated by the company was offering Counter-Strike 2 skin gambling whereby users would wager skins they owned.

Once again, the regulator claimed to have discovered information in Swedish that explained in certain detail how consumers could use the site and place wagers with skins. The domain name also does not hold a license in any jurisdiction, which has added to Spelinspektionen’s decision to oust the website from Sweden as well.

Not least, Spelinspektionen went after Galaktika NV which operates the drop dot casino, and which was found to offer certain materials in Sweden. Galaktika NV has responded to Spelinspektionen’s input during the investigation and said that it had not been purposefully targeting the Swedish market and ordered its marketing campaigns from third parties.

These campaigns were available throughout Europe, Galaktika NV said. However, Spelinspektionen noted that the onus was on the operator to ensure that its materials and offers steered clear from markets where it is not authorized to operate in.

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