Spelinspektionen appeals Casino Cosmpol penalty cut

The Swedish Gaming Authority (Spelinspektionen) has launched an appeal against a decision to reduce a penalty levied against Svenska Spel subsidiary Casino Cosmopol for failing to comply with licence requirements for money laundering and terrorist financing.

The land-based casino operator was issued with an SEK8m penalty in November last year, prompting it to launch an appeal against the decision.

While the Administrative Court of Linköping agreed that the failings in Casino Cosmopol’s internal processes merited a financial penalty, it argued that having examined the licence condition violations, it believed the sum should be reduced to SEK3m.

In launching its appeal, Spelinspektionen said that the operator had been guilty of “serious and systematic violations of gaming regulations”, and as such does not believe the reduction is justified.

“It is also unclear from the judgment of the Administrative Court why it chose to reduce the penalty fee,” the regulator added.

Spelinspektionen’s original investigation revealed that Casino Cosmopol had failed to carry out appropriate checks on high-spending players. Players that lost significant sums at its venues allowed to continue gambling, with no monitoring of their spending carried out.

Its risk assessments of customers were also deemed unfit for purpose. The regulator highlighted the example of a customer that had lost SEK2.84m since 2016 and reported to the Finance Department as a money laundering risk on three occasions being classed as low-risk.

Image: Per-Olof Forsberg