ATG cautioned over repeat bonus award for Swedish players
Former monopoly operator found to have mistakenly given bonuses to 15 existing players
The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has warned former monopoly operator ATG after a technical error saw bonuses repeatedly awarded to 15 players.
ATG’s gaming servers were relocated on 14 January but an application update error after restarting one of the servers meant that information on which customers had already received bonuses was not updated correctly.
As a result, bonuses were awarded to 15 players over a period of just over five hours before the application errors were corrected, with each player receiving an added SEK850 (£70) bonus.
The incident was identified and reported to the SGA by ATG on 14 February.
ATG has since implemented technical measures to ensure the incident does not reoccur if company servers are relocated again.
Under the Swedish Gambling Act, a Swedish licence holder may not offer or provide bonus offers beyond the first occasion on which the player participates in a game.
However, the act does allow licensees a short grace period in which to correct offences without necessarily being liable for further regulatory action.
This regulatory action can range from a note, as in this case, to a formal warning and fine, or even licence revocation for serious offences.
As ATG corrected the error quickly and reported it to the SGA, the regulator stopped short of issuing a formal warning and fine.