Betsson must not pay 2 million fine

The Swedish Supervisory Authority Spelinspektionen has imposed a record-breaking penalty amounting to 20 Million SEK on Betsson. Converted, this amounts to the amount of nearly two million Euro. The Scandinavian Gambling operator contested this penalty and the Administrative Court has now been decided in their favour.

A major setback for the Swedish Supervisory Authority Spelinspektionen. In June of last year, the latter had imposed a record-breaking fine amounting to around 1,96 million Euro, on the internationally active gambling group Betsson. The Supervisory Authority justified this action by mentioning several violations against the current gambling laws. It specifically tackles the violation against the law which specifies limitations on Bonus and Promotional offers.

Betsson sold vouchers for online gambling

The Swedish Gambling Supervisory Authority is accusing the Gambling Group Betsson AB, which is registered on the Stock exchange, among other things, of having illegally sold vouchers for the online gambling offers in the shops of 7-Eleven and Pressbyrån. The gambling operator made illegal profit from this.

Further to this, the Swedish Gambling Authority criticised the fact that the company which employs around 2,000 people, offered its gamblers a special “Betsson MasterCard“. Those who requested and made use of this card, enjoyed further bonus offers and benefits. Even this procedure was not permitted. In all, the Swedish Authorities imposed a fine on the gambling giants amounting to 20 million SEK. Converted, this amounts to around 1,96 million euro.

Betsson appealed - with success

The renowned Gambling group appealed against the imposed record fine amounting to nearly two million Euro. As it was announced a few days ago, the Administrative Court in Linköping has now revoked the penalty. The Court justified this, since the sale of the vouchers did not infringe the current gambling laws in Sweden.

The Court also did not agree with the argument of the Swedish Supervisory Authority that the privileges of the “Betsson MasterCard” were a kind of bonus. For this reason, they allowed the appeal of the gambling group and apart from that they upheld the fine. The Gambling Supervisory Authority still has the possibility to lodge an appeal against the decision.

Some time ago, in a similar case, a much higher fine amounting to nearly ten million euro was imposed by the Gambling Supervisory Authority on the gambling group Spooniker AB. Even the Spooniker AB did not want to accept the fine and appealed before the Administrative Court. Here the judges however decided that there were infringements against the current gambling laws. The amount of the fine was however exclusively criticized by the courts and it was halved to 50 million SEK, that is, around five million Euro.

Conclusion

The judgement of the Administration Court Linköping is of course extremely satisfactorily for the gambling giant Betsson. The group avoids a fine amounting to 20 million SEK, that is two million euro. Recently Betsson generated a yearly turnover of 5,42 billion SEK, which amounts to around 540 million euro. We are excited to see, if the coming months and years will bring further protests against the imposed penalties of the Swedish Gambling Authority Spelinspektion.

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