Spelinspektionen issues SEK9m penalty to Videoslots in Sweden

Spelinspektionen has awarded a SEK9m ($810,000) penalty to Videoslots, full company name of Video Slots LTD, in Sweden, after the regulator insisted in a public statement that the operator of the slots.com brand had been found in violation of certain money laundering and terrorist financing measures.

The case the regulator touched upon involves a breach registered in 2021, which led the Swedish gaming watchdog to continuously monitor how Videoslots ensured that it had sufficient knowledge of the individuals who registered and played on the company's websites. The regulator issued a warning on top of the penalty. Meanwhile, the group’s license has been intact.

Spelinspektionen also published a further breakdown of the exact offenses it analyzed to arrive at the current verdict. The regulator chose from a list of the customers who made the highest deposits at the casino between 2019 and 2021, picking ten people at random. Spelinspektionen established discrepancies between the individuals’ stated income and their gambling transactions.

One of the cases concerned an individual who made deposits worth SEK5m ($450,000) although they only stated SEK57,000 as theirincome in 2018. Videoslots did mount a defense in which it explained that the reviewed cases were not indicative of the commitment the company had shown for protecting consumers and ensuring that robust gambling industry standards are met.

The purpose of AML checks was to collect information and submit it to law enforcement, but Spelinspektionen did not accept this argument, adding that Videoslots too should be able to both detect and stop such transactions from happening if they raise red financial flags. Spelinspektionen was not fully dismissive of Videoslots’ argument, either.

The regulator agreed that the company had shown an effort in deterring suspicious transactions in general following the investigation and had indeed been working to strengthen its safeguards further. Yet, Videoslots could have done more things "proactively," the regulator stated motivating its decision.

Videoslots is a respected gambling company that is headquartered in Malta and licensed to operate in Sweden, as well as other prominent jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, and Spain. Earlier this year, Videoslots faced similar regulatory headwinds in the United Kingdom where the UK Gambling Commission awarded a £2m penalty.

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