Bayton has been fined by the Swedish Gambling Inspectorate, Spelinspektionen, for failure to report a change in its Board of Directors. 

According to Swedish licensing requirements, all operators active in the country’s betting and gaming market must inform the Spelinspektionen of any departures or additions to their boardrooms. 

An investigation into Bayton – which operates the JackpotCity, Ruby Fortune and Spin Casino online casino sites – on 16 July 2021 saw the Inspectorate find “changes in the company’s board on April 11, 2019, where one member resigned and one new accession”. 

Due to its failure to adhere to the licensing obligation, the igaming firm has been fined SEK 35,000 (€3,352). Although acknowledging that the infringement could be seen as “less serious” than other offences, the Spelinspektionen set a fine of SEK 35,000 after taking Bayton’s 2020 full year revenue of SEK 14.58 million into consideration.

“With regard to the obligation to report, it is stated in the preparatory work for the Gaming Act that the requirement on suitability could easily be circumvented by having people replaced as soon as a gaming company has received its licence. 

“It is therefore important that the gaming authority receives knowledge of when changes occur in terms of people in the ownership circle, the board and management. 

“It is against this background that a gaming company immediately, and no later than within fourteen days, must notify the gaming authority if changes occur in this circle.”

Bayton informed the Inspectorate that its failure to notify the authority of the change in its board structure was due to “shortcomings in compliance with the company’s internal routines”.

The firm also added that a report on the change to the Bayton board had been prepared but due to an “internal oversight” it was never sent to the relevant authorities.

In response, Bayton has conducted a review and initiated internal routines and changes, notifying all relevant teams of the importance of following national regulations. 

The board member in question had previously been the subject of a review due to also being part of the boardroom at Whitfield Management, the corporate director of independent Channel Islands fiduciary Bellerive Trust.

The fine is the latest handed out by the Spelinspektionen this year, but is the first to arise due to a failure to report boardroom changes, with a previous fine against Lottoland relating to the placing of bets on lotteries and sanctions against SkillOnNet and NGG Nordic a result of violations of the Swedish bonus ban.