Swedish Gambling Regulator Hits Glitnor Services with $2.7M Fine

Spelinspektionen, or the Swedish Gambling Authority as the regulator is known outside of Sweden, has issued a SEK 28 million fine amounting to roughly $2.7 million against Glitnor Services and the company’s LuckyCasino gambling website that the firm runs in the country.

Glitnor Failed to Protect 10 Customers, Regulator Argues  

The stiff penalty was handed down to the company after the regulator identified at least 10 customers who were not offered sufficient protection from excessive gambling and failed to reduce the amounts said customers were spending despite clear indications that the said persons may have been overindulging.

Furthermore, the regulator found out that at least three of the customers had deposit limits of SEK 2.2 million or around $220,000 a month, which was too high. In another instance, one customer was able to place an extraordinary number of bets – 3,200 in the space of just five-and-a-half hours.

The regulator found other worrying incidents that took place on the casino’s website. Another player was able to lose 24% of their stated annual income in only three days.

LuckyCasino did intervene in some of the cases, reaching out to customers and rolling out loss limits as well as using personalized interventions, but the Swedish Gambling Authority concluded that there had been no material impact on the customers’ gambling behavior as a result of these interventions.

Glitnor Argues Against Vague and Unjust Ruling

For its part, Glitnor has not acknowledged the breaches and said that the judgement was “unjust,” and insisted that it was based on vague factology and regulatory rules. Glitnor confirmed that it would be appealing the verdict and seeking to challenge it.

This is a common practice in Sweden, with gambling companies given a legal recourse to contest the findings and fines issued by the Spelinspektionen. Glitnor further said that the company was “extremely” serious about maintaining a robust responsible gambling framework and that all of the failures named by the regulator were dating to offenses that took place before 2023.

The Swedish Gambling Authority has also noted that some of the other measures used by the company have come too late.

For example, stopping customer accounts was ineffective precisely because it was implemented too late. A person is said to have been gambling excessive amounts for at least a month before the operator intervened.

Sweden Maintains Regulatory Pressure and Supervision

Sweden has similarly failed to act in another instance, with the regulator going after Roar Vegas Ltd. The watchdog said that it had looked into the play histories of 12 customers who were registered with the operator and determined that three of those customers did not receive sufficient protection from the operator.

Roar Vegas was hit with a much smaller fine compared to Glitnor’s website, however – SEK 8 million or $801,000.