Mr Green’s appeal against SEK31.5m SGA fine rejected
Operator dealt second regulatory blow following dismissal over Dutch ruling as court agrees AML failings and lack of duty of care were evident
Mr Green’s appeal against an SEK31.5m fine handed out by the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has been rejected.
On 5 May, the Administrative Court in Linköping rejected the operator’s appeal in its entirety regarding a fine handed out in August 2021 over anti-money laundering (AML) and responsible gambling (RG) shortcomings.
At the time, Mr Green said human and error and delays played into the shortcomings, and that an absence of guidance from the SGA made customer assessments a “complicated task”.
However, the court has sided with the SGA, noting Mr Green had “lacked routines” in its AML process and that it had failed to fulfil its obligations in regard to duty of care.
In a statement, the SGA said: “The court held that the company had lacked routines regarding the risks of money laundering and that it had violated the Money Laundering Act’s rules on customer knowledge regarding the customers in question.
“The court further considered that the company had not fulfilled its obligations under the duty of care regarding the customers in question.
“Warning was considered a sufficient measure and the sanction fees decided were considered to be proportionate.”
The SGA handed the Malta-headquartered firm two fines after initiating a case against the operator in November 2019 following a complaint received from a customer.
The regulator issued a warning over its choice of AML interventions alongside a fine of SEK1.5m (£125,000).
In respect of the duty of care breaches, Mr Green did not make adequate contact with customers who had a deposit limit over SEK10,000 according to the SGA, which issued a warning against the firm.
As with the AML breach, the regulator described the violations as serious and systematic, but issued Mr Green with an increased fine of SEK30m (£2.5m) on this occasion.
Earlier this week, Mr Green lost its appeal over illegally accepting Dutch players.