Industry criticizes Swedish regulator's punitive approach

The Swedish Online Betting Trade Association (BOS), which represents the betting industry, is criticizing Spelinspektionen's supervisory approach. According to a legal review commissioned by the association and prepared by Nordic Legal, the agency imposes harsher sanctions compared with other Swedish supervisory authorities and focuses on penalties rather than cooperative dialogue.

The review compares the agency with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) and the Stockholm County Administrative Board. It notes that these bodies generally assess AML compliance using a risk-based, system-wide approach. Spelinspektionen, by contrast, is said to base its AML investigations on small samples of customer accounts. The review records that 11 of the 12 AML decisions issued since 2021 were based on reviews of 5 to 15 customer files. The report also claims that the agency often fails to take operators' overall risk assessments and AML policies into account.

The findings on penalties also stand out. In seven of the nine AML decisions examined from 2022 to 2025, sanctions reached at least 50 percent of the statutory maximum fine. In two cases, the fines were reported to be around 91 percent and 100 percent of the maximum. The same review states that in large bank cases, FI's AML fines have remained between 20 and 27 percent of the maximum amount.

Spelinspektionen continues to pursue high-profile cases. This month, it lost its appeal against a total fine of 40 million SEK (3.5 million euro) imposed on bet365 for systematically breaching duty-of-care and investment limit rules between 2019 and 2022.

BOS Secretary General Gustaf Hoffstedt said the licensed betting market would benefit if the agency adopted working methods closer to those of other Swedish state authorities.