Three operators have had their appeals against penalty fees issued by the Swedish Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen, rejected by the Administrative Court after a review.

A decision to uphold penalty fees given to Betsson, Snabbare and Spooniker was announced today by Spelinspektionen, who announced that the Administrative Court agreed with its view that the companies “committed serious violations of the money laundering regulations through insufficient customer due diligence measures”.

All penalty fees were handed out back in May 2025 for anti-money laundering (AML) failings. 

Betsson was issued with a warning as well as a SEK6.5 million (£502k) fine. 

Spelinspektionen selected customers to review based on a list of the 50 customers aged 18-29 who made the largest total deposits between 1 January-31 December 2023.

It found that the operators had failed to adequately identify the source of income for large deposits that could not be justified by the consumers’ taxable income.

In Betsson’s case, one customer had made 163 deposits between 19 September-30 December 2023 which totalled SEK 491,950, despite their annual net income being SEK 310,000. 

The player’s risk level was only considered between low and medium.

Spooniker and Snabbare were stung by fees of SEK 10m and SEK 5.5m by the regulator. All three operators attributed the high deposits to previous winnings.

Betsson: “Spelinspektionen’s interpretation is incorrect”

The court argued that this could not be verified, and therefore upheld the fine. The operators have not lied down regarding the decision though.

“The interpretation of the Swedish Gambling Authority – that licensees may only take into account previous withdrawals if they have verified that they are indeed from there as later deposits by continuously obtaining account statements – is incorrect,” Betsson stated.

“It goes against the previous practice of the administrative court, the preparatory work of the money laundering regulations and supranational guidance. Furthermore, it lacks a connection to both the risk-based approach and the facts of the case. The interpretation is also disproportionate and violates the principles of equal treatment.

“The decision violates the principle of equal treatment, since the administrative court previously has overturned decisions regarding comparable but more serious circumstances, where the operator in question had failed to obtain income information, significantly higher net deposits than Betsson without customer due diligence measures and in several cases disregarded its documentation obligation. 

“The decision also violates the principle of legality in that the company had no reason to expect the Swedish Gambling Authority’s interpretation of the requirement on how customer due diligence measures should be implemented.

“In any case, Betsson’s possible violations have neither been systematic nor serious. If the Administrative Court finds that there are grounds for an intervention, the sanction fee should therefore be reduced completely or at least reduced significantly.” 

ComeOn Group-owned Snabbare cited Spelinspektionen’s as “wrong for several reasons”.

Meanwhile, Spooniker – a then-subsidiary of FDJ United, which is no longer active in Sweden – said that the regulator’s decisions are “consistently imprecise”.

The upholding of these penalty fees come as Swedish operators continue to fight a burgeoning black market, which is estimated to be generating SEK 3.6bn-7.3bn and gross turnover of SEK 60bn-120bn.