Zimpler wins appeal in Swedish court, Hacksaw handed a penalty

Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority, and Swedish courts have been busy this week, presiding over a number of cases concerning gambling operators in the country.

Although many companies were penalized, in several instances, the operators managed to appeal their original fines successfully, and prove that they had acted within the law.

Zimpler in the clear thanks to Administrative Court ruling

The first case in focus concerns the fate of Zimpler, a fintech company providing secure account-to-account payment solutions, which was targeted by Spelinspektionen in 2023, and accused of cooperating with operators which did not have a Swedish gambling license.

Spelinspektionen insisted that Zimpler had provided BankID to gaming companies that specifically targeted the Swedish iGaming market and requested from the payment provider to stop offering its services to such companies.

Zimpler originally complied with the request, but then sought to appeal the decision, as it felt that it would be useful to have further clarification in the case.

This case comes within a day of another five instances of gambling companies crossing the line according to the regulator, with the Court of Appeal handling down penalty fees to all five companies involved due to unauthorized bonus policies and deficiencies of the duty of care. The companies in question are:

• XC Gaming Sweden Ltd
• Casinostugan Ltd
• ComeOn Sweden Ltd
• Snabbare Ltd
• Hajper Ltd

The Administrative Court, though, did not agree with Spelinspektionen’s legal argument, which equated the use of BankID as indicative that certain companies had been targeting the Swedish iGaming market in the first place.

Other considerations, such as the use of Swedish krona and language would also have to be factored in for a determination of this sort to be made. The court said that Zimpler did not provide its BankID solution exclusively to players and gambling operators, and that a Swedish resident with a social security number could register and use the banking solution freely.

The court understood the argument that Zimpler might have purposefully entered into a relationship with some foreign gambling companies, but this did not change the court’s assessment of the situation.

In other words, Zimpler would not be held accountable for any purposeful facilitation of illegal gambling in the country. Spelinspektionen may appeal the Administrative Court’s decision if it chooses to but has so far not announced any such intentions.

Zimpler was out, but others picked up the baton

"The devil you know" may be a good way to describe what happened in Sweden following Zimpler’s decision to stop offering BankID to gambling operators.

As early as January 2024, Swedish gambling operators sounded an alarm that new payment providers had started offering payment solutions to unauthorized gambling websites that supposedly targeted Swedish customers.

Meanwhile, Spelinspektionen awarded aSEK2.6m penalty fee to Hacksaw Studios AB, a supplier of online casino games for the market, as the company was discovered to have supposedly provided its content to two companies that do not have a Swedish license but have made their products available in the country.

The penalty is applied in line with a gambling law re-regulation that came into effect on July 1, 2023, and required from suppliers to reapply for their licenses and agree to the new regulatory rules.

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