The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has issued bans to two more operators found to be illegally targeting Swedish players.
One of the offending parties is Curaçao-based firm Altacore NV, which operates several websites offering to Swedish players.
These include Betify, Wintopia, Flappy, Yonibet, Luckyhour, Cosmicslot, Winlegends and Casinozer.
The company also operates Rollino, Gamblezen, Spinsbro and Icebet.
The SGA’s review of the platforms uncovered that Sweden was the country of choice upon registration and pre-selected when accessed from a Swedish IP address.
Furthermore, the company and its affiliates featured marketing materials in Swedish, with players directed towards websites via Swedish-speaking content creators on the video streaming platform Twitch.
Although it declined to offer a response to the SGA when contacted, Altacore NV did implement geo-blocking software to prevent Swedish IP addresses from accessing the aforementioned websites.
However, a further inspection by the SGA discovered several “mirror websites” operated by Altacore NV which continued the violations.
Altacore once again implemented geo-blocking for “some” of these sites, although several more mirror websites were later discovered.
The operator failed to put protocols in place to prevent Swedish players registering and creating an account with the offending websites, thereby breaching the country’s gambling legislation.
The SGA subsequently banned Altacore from offering any games to the Swedish market.
An SGA statement said: “Although the websites’ domain names have been changed several times during the course of the case, and there is a lack of information about ownership on some domains, the Swedish Gambling Authority assesses that the websites that provide games under all of the brands Wintopia, Flappy, Betify, Yonibet, Luckyhour, Cosmicslot, Casinozer, Rollino and Gamblezen are owned and operated by Altacore NV.
“The Gambling Authority makes this assessment in light of the fact that the mirror websites are designed in the same way as the websites that were first noted during the investigation and which contained information that Altacore NV was the owner.
“The Swedish Gambling Authority assesses that Altacore NV provides games in Sweden, as there is still Swedish-language marketing via Swedish-language affiliates and content creators on Twitch for websites under the brands operated by Altacore NV.
“Altacore NV does not have a licence to provide games in Sweden. The Swedish Gambling Authority has therefore decided to prohibit Altacore NV from providing games in Sweden. The Swedish Gambling Authority considers that, in the interests of consumer protection and to guarantee gaming safety, it is important that the decision is complied with immediately.”
Earlier this week, the SGA issued two bans to Curaçao-based firms Bitx Operations NV and Ryker BV, that were also found to be targeting Swedish players without the necessary licence.
The post SGA bans another black market operator targeting Swedish players first appeared on EGR Intel.
Regulator sanctions Curaçao-based firm Altacore NV for operating in the market without the requisite licence
The post SGA bans another black market operator targeting Swedish players first appeared on EGR Intel.