Swedish Gambling Authority Challenges Court Ruling on Svenska Spel Sport & Casino AB

On 25 March 2024, the Swedish Gambling Authority decided to issue Svenska Spel Sport & Casino AB with a warning and a penalty fee of SEK 100 million for deficiencies in the duty of care.

The Administrative Court overturned the Swedish Gambling Authority's decision on 2 June 2025. The Administrative Court agreed with the Swedish Gambling Authority's assessment that all customers reviewed had excessive gambling. However, the Administrative Court ruled that Spelinspektionen had not shown that Svenska Spel had breached its duty of care in such a way as to constitute grounds for intervention.

Spelinspektionen is appealing the Administrative Court's judgement because the judgement conflicts with previous court decisions regarding the duty of care and Spelinspektionen's own assessment of the scope of the duty of care.

The Administrative Court's judgement is incorrectly based on the fact that the duty of care under Chapter 14, section 1 of the Gambling Act does not contain any concrete directives for action. The Swedish Gambling Authority considers that the provision imposes clear requirements on a licence holder. A licence holder shall promptly take active measures to protect players against excessive gambling. A licence holder must also continuously monitor extensive gambling and, if necessary, take measures as the gambling occurs. A licence holder must also voluntarily limit gambling in order to counteract the damage that excessive gambling can cause.

The customers reviewed, one of whom was a young person, gambled extensively and lost significant amounts over a short period of time, with losses totalling between SEK 260,000 and SEK 600,000 over two months. In some cases, the losses correspond to a large part of the customer's taxable annual income. The company's measures have mainly consisted of warnings and informative messages. The Swedish Gambling Authority makes the assessment that Svenska Spel Sport & Casino neither continuously followed up on the customers reviewed nor took the necessary and individualised measures to limit their gambling.

Spelinspektionen believes that the Administrative Court has assessed Svenska Spel Sport & Casino in a completely different manner than other sanctioned licence holders. The Swedish Gambling Authority is therefore appealing the Administrative Court's judgement to the Administrative Court of Appeal.