SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Issuing a market update, Swedish gambling inspectorate Spelinspektionen detailed that it has requested specific amendments to be introduced to Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) approved measures and protections against money laundering.
Spelinspektionen undertakes its parliamentary request, as it seeks to establish a new Swedish Treasury approved AML control system to monitor specific gambling transactions.
On 1 January 2020, the Riksdag sanctioned new measures strengthening Sweden’s financial and business codes against money laundering and the funding of criminal/terrorist activities.
The Riksdag informed that its AML measures were aligned with the requirements of the European Union’s ‘Fifth Money Laundering Directive’.
Having reviewed the approved measures, Spelinspektionen has requested that the Riksdag amend two provisions of its AML decree, for the purposes of better regulating Swedish gambling incumbents.
Spelinspektionen has instructed the Riksdag to add amendments, which enforce that a licensee must disclose how they record supervision of employees handling/monitoring financial transactions, including reprimands.
A further provision requests that AML ‘Security Police’ be issued the same rights a Federal Police in being able to request transactional information from operators.
Closing its 2019 legislative agenda, Spelinspektionen urged Sweden’s Ministry of Finance to increase its ‘maximum penalty charge’ to ‘10% of operator business revenues’, placed upon gambling incumbents breaching Sweden’s ‘Money Laundering Act’.
Spelinspektionen governance underlined that the Ministry’s current €1 million fine was ‘not sufficiently noticeable’ upon licensed incumbents generating SEK billions from Sweden’s re-regulated marketplace.
