ATG slapped with SEK6m fine over money laundering failures
Swedish Gambling Authority uncovers eight examples of customer protection shortcomings in latest regulatory clampdown
The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has slapped ATG with a SEK6m (£475,741) fine after the operator failed to adequately interact with customers.
In Q3 2021, the regulator began investigating ATG’s frameworks across money laundering and terrorist financing, along with the operator’s schemes in place to ensure sufficient customer knowledge.
The review also explored whether routines and guidelines at the operator were up to standard, as well as how ATG established and updated customers’ risk profiles.
The investigation found ATG had failed across a series of metrics, including not taking “sufficient measures” to assess the risk of the business being used for money laundering and terrorist financing.
Along with the SEK6m fine, ATG also received a formal warning from the SGA.
In its review, the Swedish regulator asked ATG to provide a list of the 30 customers who made the largest number of deposits between 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2022 and 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021.
ATG also duly provided details of the 50 customers who deposited the largest amounts as well as 100 customers with the highest balances.
The SGA randomly selected 13 customers, of which the regulator found eight examples where ATG had failed to implement the correct measures in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing.
In one of the most damning failures, one customer was able to deposit SEK2m between 1 January 2020 and 15 December 2021, despite the customer having a taxed income of just SEK365,000.
ATG sent the customer two customer-awareness surveys, after which it deemed the case to be closed. But, upon being made aware of the customer’s taxed income, ATG asked the customer for a source of funds statement.
During this period, the customer was able to make deposits of SEK1.4m without intervention.
The customer finally responded, noting that money from “private arrangements” helped fund their gambling, but the customer was unable to provide source of funds evidence at that point.
In another example, one customer was blocked on 10 August 2020 after depositing SEK3.5m between January and July, and was reclassified as high risk.
However, after the customer completed an awareness survey, their account was reopened on 21 August and the case was closed with no further action.
Earlier this year, SGA director-general Camilla Rosenberg spoke to EGR about the challenges surrounding the channelisation rate in Sweden and the impact of responsible gambling measures on the market.