Videoslots has been granted a full five-year license from the Swedish Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen, to provide its services on the territory of Sweden.
The popular online casino brand’s Swedish license is now valid until the end of 2023 after it successfully appealed Spelinspektionen’s original decision to award a two-year license.
Videoslots obtained its Swedish license in December 2018 ahead of this January’s reorganization of the local online gambling market. Spelinspektionen issued a shorter-term license to the online casino operation due to its previously being subject to regulatory action and “penalties for its gaming operations in the UK.”
The Swedish regulator referred to a probe into Videoslots’ UK activities conducted by the nation’s Gambling Commission. The UK regulator identified weaknesses in the online casino’s anti-money laundering and social responsibility controls and ordered it to pay a £1 million penalty package in lieu of a financial penalty. The money went to the National Responsible Gambling Strategy to fund research and treatment projects.
Videoslots turned to court to overturn Spelinspektionen’s decision to award it only a two-year license. It said in court that the Swedish regulator “had not been consistent in its licensing,” noting that other gambling companies that had been granted five-year licenses had prior faced regulatory action.
One such operator had been Sweden’s former gambling monopoly Svenska Spel, whose land-based casino business Casino Cosmopol had been punished due to shortcomings in its anti-money laundering procedures.
Court Sides with Videoslots
Videoslots appealed Spelinspektionen’s decision to grant it a two-year license in the Administrative Court of Linköping. The court recently sided with the gambling operator and Videoslots’ successful appeal paved the way for it to receive a full license in Sweden.
Following the court’s recent ruling, Spelinspektionen has issued a five-year license to the online casino, which will be valid through the end of 2023.
Commenting on the recent events, Videoslots CEO Alexander Stevendahl said that they are “firmly committed to keeping gambling both safe and fun and this has been recognised with the full-five year period of our Swedish license.”
Mr. Stevendahl added that player safety across all markets is their priority and that news about their license extension was very welcome “due to the growth we are seeing in the Swedish market.”
Videoslots was the latest of a series of operators that were deemed eligible for five-year licenses by the Administrative Court after originally being issued two-year permits to operate in Sweden. In late October, LeoVegas announced that it was too issued a full license after winning its court appeal. The company’s CEO, Gustaf Hagman, said back then that the license extension was “an affirmation that we conduct a professional and responsible operation.”
LeoVegas was fined £600,000 in the UK in the spring of 2018 over a series of transgressions, including failings relating to its self-exclusion controls.
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