Kindred and ATG breach Swedish deposit restrictions

Kindred Group and ATG could each be subject to a fine in Sweden after an online loophole allowed players to repeatedly breach Covid-19 restrictions on deposit limits.

A Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) investigation discovered customers of both companies had been able to circumvent the weekly SEK5,000 (£440) deposit limit for online casino by depositing funds in adjacent sportsbook accounts before transferring the cash to their online gaming accounts.

The regulator filed an injunction against both operators and demanded a fix be implemented immediately, with Kindred and ATG given three weeks to solve the issue.

Both firms will be fined SEK1m per week for each week the loophole remains live after the initial three-week period.

The SGA noted the loophole allowed players to spend up to SEK50,000 of new deposits in a week on online casino games.

The injunction was issued against Kindred’s Spooniker Ltd subsidiary, which provides online gambling in Sweden via the bingo.se, mariacasino.se, storspelare.se and unibet.se domains.

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 CEO Henrik Tjärnström last month described the decision to extend the deposit limits to July 2021 as “a step in the wrong direction” as it could drive players away from the licensed environment and towards the black market.