Mr Green Handed SEK31.5m Fine for Gambling Offences

Mr Green is well-respected among online casino operators and has been since 2007, and known as the gentleman of online casino operators, but recent activities have landed the popular online casino giant in hot water. Warnings and penalty fees have been handed to the gambling outfit by the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate for “shortcomings considered serious” in relation to money laundering and problem gambling.

Just Not Good Enough

So, what happened? In a statement released by the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate, “two warnings” were combined with penalty fees for failure to take sufficient anti-money laundering measures as well as failings to put into actions KYC procedures. As a result, they will now have to pay a hefty SEK31.5m fine.

“According to the Money Laundering Act, the maximum penalty amount for having breached compliance with the Act is €1m, while the Gaming Act allows a significantly larger amount in penalty fees, as it is calculated on the gaming company's turnover.” Rules are there for a reason and when those rules are broken or not put into place, an operator will be held accountable and, in this case, it will cost Mr Green millions!

The statement continued “Mr Green Ltd has failed in its work with customer knowledge and has not taken the necessary measures urgently enough to be able to assess the risk of their business being used for money laundering. This is serious and Mr Green Ltd therefore receives a warning and a penalty fee of SEK1.5m.”

Penalty two comes in the form of not engaging with customers or recognising when there could be a customer with a potential gambling problem. A duty of care means they must protect players from excessive gambling and “help them reduce their gambling when there is reason to do so. To protect the player, the licensee should provide feedback on the player's playing behaviour and apply restrictions and access restrictions to the players.”

As a result of not taking sufficient measures to reduce customer gambling, or protect those who had a gambling problem, Mr Green receives a warning plus a fee of SEK30m. Fifteen cases were brought to the attention of the gambling regulator and in several of those instances, customers had not been contacted by the operator to highlight the importance of safer gambling, even after making multiple deposits a day while playing for hundreds of thousands of kronor.

Findings also highlighted instances where more than one customer had been making deposits that far exceeded their income! If KYC practices had been in place, this would never have been allowed to happen. Operators are required by law to request proof of financial income, and should they not receive this, those customers will not be able to place a wager ever again.

Source: “Mr Green Fined for Gambling Offences”. InterGame. August 25, 2021.