ATG handed €187,500 penalty by Sweden’s Gambling Authority
Swedish horse racing operator AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) have been asked to pay a fine of €187,500 (SEK 2 million) following their own disclosure to Sweden’s Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen, about a technical failure in January that prevented users from opting out of gaming on their platforms.
The Spelinspektionen arrived at the final penalty based on ATG’s gross gaming revenue for FY 2021. Pardeep Bhakar/Unsplash
The issue pertains to a period between January 13 and January 28 this year when due to an alleged technical issue, users who logged onto ATG’s platforms with their mobile bank IDs were not able to access the self-exclusion function on both ATG’s website as well as mobile app. In a statement announcing their final decision regarding this shortcoming, the Swedish Gambling Authority cited the following regulations, among others, as those that were violated:
“A licensee must give registered players the opportunity to suspend themselves from games for a certain period of time or until further notice. A suspension until further notice may not be lifted until after twelve months at the earliest (chapter 14, section 11 of the Gambling Act). The function for self-exclusion must be clearly visible and accessible from all pages on the website where the player can play or where there is information about the gambling account or information about gambling responsibility (Chapter 11, Section 11 of the Gambling Ordinance).”
ATG’s proactiveness works in their favor
In February, ATG themselves reported this failing to the gambling authority. ATG said that they had detected the bug on January 27 and fixed it by January 28, but the authority deemed that technical failure was not a good enough reason to escape penalty.
The self-exclusion feature in Sweden’s gambling avenues is linked to the Spelpaus platform, which is a gambling addiction prevention measure that allows users registered with gaming companies to suspend their accounts when required. During the course of the examination, ATG and the gambling authorities found that other avenues for self-exclusion, such as a link to Spelpaus and direct contact through customer service were still available. This went in ATG’s favor, based on the authority’s statement, and reduced the damages to only a fine and a reprimand.
“When choosing an intervention, the Gambling Inspectorate takes into account that the players were able to disconnect via customer service and that the link to Spelpaus has functioned correctly during the period, as well as that ATG promptly corrected the error when it came to their attention. ATG has also introduced routines to prevent the same error from happening again, which according to the Gambling Inspectorate also means that the violation will not be repeated. All in all the Swedish Gaming Authority considers that a remark is a reasonable intervention.”
How the fine was calculated
In their statement, the Swedish Gamblng Authority provided a detailed breakdown of how the decision to fine ATG SEK 2 million was arrived at. They said that some of the factors considered in determining the extent of the penalty were the seriousness of the violation and for how long it went on. While the authority has the liberty to fully or partially reduce the penalties if they find the offense to be minor and pardonable, or if they think a penalty would be unreasonable, they saw no such exemptions possible for ATG.
In consultation with the Norwegian Gaming Authority, the Swedish authority found that the period of 15 days during which the error occurred, and the number of users estimated to be affected by it – close to a 100 – was good enough cause to consider this infringement as not a minor one.
Having stated that, the authority said that according to Swedish gaming regulations, the penalty must be in relation to the turnover of a company that is in violation of the regulations and be anywhere between SEK 5,000 (approx. €470) and a maximum of 10 percent of the said company’s turnover. Along those lines, the authority concluded that ATG’s gross revenue for 2021, which was declared as SEK 25 billion (approx. €187 million), was a suitable benchmark from which to arrive at a penalty fee.
While this was would technically allow the authority to penalize ATG up to the tune of SEK 2.5 billion (approx. €18.7 million), the authority said that they had contacted the Swedish Tax agency to ascertain the gross gaming revenue (GGR), the amount of winnings paid out by ATG, and other related financial information to properly arrive at a suitable fine.
“Taking into account the same circumstances as mentioned above regarding the seriousness of the violation, how long the violation has been going on and ATG’s turnover, the Gambling Inspectorate assesses that the sanction fee should amount to SEK 2,000,000. The Swedish Gaming Authority assesses that this penalty fee is also proportionate to ATG’s GGR.”
