Spelinspektionen warns ATG after bonusing glitch

The Swedish Gaming Authority (Spelinspektionen) has warned ATG over technical problems that have made it possible to receive bonuses more than once.

On 14 February, ATG sent a letter to Spelinspektionen, informing the regulator that players had been given a bonus even though they had already received one in the past. Under the Swedish Gambling Act of 2018, which set the framework for Sweden's regulated market, licensees may only offer a bonus to players only for the first time they play the licensee’s games.

According to ATG, the incident happened because of a migration of the operator’s servers, with players’ bonus history not updating with the migration.

In total, 15 customers were able to use second bonuses, worth a combined SEK850 (£69.50/€78.35/$87.48) because of the glitch, which lasted for five and a half hours on 14 January.

“ATG has stated that the company takes a very serious view of what has happened, and even though the incident is linked to the relocation of servers, the company has reviewed the procedures for new customer offers so that something similar should not happen again,” Spelinspektionen said.

Spelinspektionen director-general Camilla Rosenberg opted not to take any action over the error, noting that it only lasted briefly, was due to a technical error and that it was self-reported.

“The violation has only affected a few people and has been going on for a short time,” she said. “In addition, ATG has on its own initiative reported the violation to Spelinspektionen and made a correction.

“In its overall assessment, Spelinspektionen therefore considers that the violation in this case is less serious and that a warning may be regarded as sufficient intervention.”

Patrick Brissman, ATG's  chief corporate communication officer, said the operator regrets the error and always makes an effort to stay compliant.

“Following the regulations is the foundation of our entire business,” Brissman said. “Therefore, it is a matter of course for us to report when we discover that an error has been committed. We regret and continue to work focused on avoiding any errors that may occur.”