Swedish Administrative Court Rejects Fine Appeal from XC Gaming

Last year, the Swedish gambling regulator levied a fine on XC Gaming after it determined that the gaming operator offered multiple bonuses for its highest-depositing customer. Although XC Gaming appealed the $571,000 fine, the Administrative Court rejected the appeal today. The court deemed the infringement as very serious and agreed that the sanction introduced by the regulator is proportionate.

XC Gaming’s $571k Penalty over Bonus Breaches Remains

XC Gaming had appealed a $571,000 (SEK5 million) penalty that was introduced by Spelinspektionen, the Swedish gambling regulator, over bonus breaches last year. Now, the Administrative Court in Sweden rejected the appeal entirely, according to a statement released by the regulator. The court acknowledged that XC Gaming had given unauthorized bonuses as well as physical gifts to a player who had made several cash deposits.

The decided penalty fee is judged to be proportionate.”

Statement released by Spelinspektionen

Additionally, the player was identified as “vulnerable” by the company, which, according to the court, is in breach of duty care regarding the player in question. The Administrative Court agreed with Spelinspektionen that the infringement committed by the operator is “very serious.” Thus, it said that the penalty introduced by the regulator is “judged to be proportionate.”

Spelinspektionen’s Query into XC Gaming

The infringement that the regulator is referring to occurred before The Mill Adventure acquired XC Gaming. Spelinspektionen did acknowledge that the new owner has introduced changes to ensure that no such breach occurs in the future.

The breach was discovered last year when Spelinspektionen probed into XC since the operator was awarded a two-year license. The query included questions related to XC’s operating capacity, among other procedures. As a part of that query, Spelinspektionen requested details regarding the operator’s highest-depositing customer.

Once that data was uncovered, the regulator found out that that customer had received at least six bonuses. Those bonuses varied between $170 (SEK1,500) and $850 (SEK7,500). Overall, Spelinspektionen calculated that the user had received more than $2,390 (SEK21,000) as a bonus for the period of the review. Moreover, the regulator found out that the customer had received a bottle of champagne as a gift as well.

Sweden’s current rules on gambling came into effect in 2019. As a result, under the current regulations, gambling operators are restricted to offering only one player bonus. That bonus is given once the player initially registers with the operator and no further bonuses are allowed.