William Hill records further Swedish compliance struggles, as its Evoke Gaming subsidiary is demanded to re-verify player accounts registered during 2019 by gambling inspectorate Spelinspektionen.

An investigation by Spelinspektionen outlined a number of verification discrepancies related to customers registered by Evoke brands during the period of January-to-July 2019.

Spelinspektionen’s investigation focused on Evoke’s management of its licensing duties, in which customers had to be verified to the standards of the new Swedish Gambling Act brought into force from 1 January 2019.

Complying with new orders, Evoke allowed its existing customers to ‘manually confirm’ their details by registered personal documents as ID-verification.     

However, Evoke’s management was deemed insufficient as Spelinspektionen judged that documents registered could not verify customers’ address, IP and social security numbers as ID requirements needed to comply with Gambling Act rules.

Evoke replied to Spelinspektionen’s judgement, stating that it had required existing customers to manually submit ID documents recommended by the Gambling Act – drivers licence, passports and national ID cards.

Spelinspektionen outlined that licensed operators are required to carry out customer background checks on social security numbers to verify against the national self-exclusion registry of Spelpaus.se.

As a result, Evoke has been ordered to submit a report to the inspectorate no later than 9 November 2021 outlining the measures it has taken to re-verify customers playing during the disputed period.

Evoke Gaming forms part of Mr Green – William Hill’s European online gambling subsidiary that was fined SEK 30 million (€3m) this month by Spelinspektionen in relation to AML and failure of customer care duties.