Kindred Group wins Swedish court appeal in deposit limit loophole case

Kindred Group has won its legal challenge against the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) over its interpretation of the regulator’s Covid-19 deposit limits. In a hearing at the Swedish Administrative Court in Linköping, judges dismissed a prior SGA ruling which was appealed by the Stockholm-listed operator. Kindred, along with Swedish operator ATG, was sanctioned by the SGA in December for allegedly breaching the SEK5,000 per week (£440) deposit limit for online casino. In its investigation, the SGA found that consumers were able to deposit funds into their adjacent sportsbook accounts before transferring the cash to their online gaming accounts, thus creating a loophole which allowed players to spend up to SEK50,000 of new deposits per week on online casino games. Kindred was given three weeks to fix the issue, with a separate SEK1m (£84,440) fine per week for each week the loophole remained live. At the time, Kindred Group told EGR: “In this case, Kindred has interpreted the temporary regulations as they are written. “That means that it is the deposit limit set by the customer that determines his/her access to the products. However, the SGA has adopted a different interpretation that it is the actual deposits made that determines product access, which is not what is intended by the regulations.” Kindred launched a legal appeal against the SGA’s decision soon after on the above grounds. Judges at the Administrative Court annulled the initial SGA injunction on grounds its interpretation of the regulations were incorrect. “The court finds that the provision cannot be interpreted in any other way than that it is the deposit limit specified by the player that determines whether he can be offered commercial online gambling, not his actual deposits,” judges stated.