The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has appealed the Administrative Court’s decision to overturn a fine the regulator handed to Svenska Spel related to duty of care failings.
The SGA initially fined the operator SEK100m back in March 2024 over perceived duty of care failings.
Between October 2017 and December 2021, the regulator conducted an audit of Svenska Spel which examined the gambling losses of 10 players.
The SGA concluded that all 10 customers had shown signs of excessive gambling by having high deposit limits, depositing large sums of money and accruing large losses.
The regulator subsequently ruled that Svenska Spel had been passive in its duty of care towards its customers which therefore justified a sanction being levied.
Svenska Spel appealed the decision in Sweden’s Administrative Court, claiming it had implemented appropriate responsible gambling protocols to reduce levels of gambling-related harm experienced by customers during the time of the SGA’s audit.
The operator also attested there were no specific rules in Swedish gambling legislation defining what appropriate responsible gambling measures should be, and therefore its procedures should have been deemed sufficient.
Earlier this month the court sided with Svenska Spel and ruled that the fine should be overturned, citing the ambiguity within the country’s gambling laws.
The SGA has since appealed the decision, claiming it is “in conflict with previous court decisions regarding the duty of care” of other operators.
The regulator cited similar cases against Mr Green and Hillside (bet365) where customers had lost large amounts, deposited and wagered large amounts and had high or no deposit limits.
In each instance, an appropriate sanction was agreed by the SGA, Administrative Court and, in the case of Mr Green, the Court of Appeal and duly issued to the respective operator.
In all cases, the companies in question were aware of players exhibiting problematic behaviour from an early stage, similar to the SGA’s assessment of Svenska Spel.
The regulator therefore argued that state-owned Svenska Spel should likewise be sanctioned for duty of care failings that the Administrative Court had previously deemed to be negligent.
The SGA’s appeal stated: “Mr Green and Hillside allowed all customers to continue to deposit money and play even after the companies had noticed excessive gambling and contacted the customers through, among other things, warning messages.
“Even in the current case, it is the case that Svenska Spel has allowed customers to continue to deposit money and play after the company noticed the excessive gambling and without the company taking more intrusive measures than messages.
“In light of previous practice and the circumstances that exist in the current case, there are no objective and reasonable reasons why the Administrative Court has not found that Svenska Spel has also breached the duty of care.
“The Administrative Court’s ruling in the current case is contrary to both higher court practice and the Administrative Court’s own rulings regarding the duty of care.
“Given that the circumstances in the current case are very similar to those in previous cases, the difference in the Administrative Court’s assessment is remarkable.”
At the time, Mr Green received an SEK31.5m fine, although this was later halved to SEK12m in May 2024.
The SGA added: “The duty of care follows from the law. In contrast to the Administrative Court, the SGA believes that Svenska Spel’s failure to take more measures than those mentioned above cannot be assessed in any other way than that the company has seriously, or ‘flagrantly’, breached the duty of care – an expression used by the Administrative Court in its judgment.”
The post SGA appeals court’s decision to overturn Svenska Spel’s duty of care fine first appeared on EGR Intel.
Swedish regulator challenges Administrative Court’s ruling to overturn the original sanction handed to the operator on the grounds it’s “contrary” to similar cases
The post SGA appeals court’s decision to overturn Svenska Spel’s duty of care fine first appeared on EGR Intel.