Spelinspektionen collaborates with authorities on anti-money laundering initiatives

Sweden’s Spelinspektionen has strengthened its fight against money laundering and terrorist financing after agreeing to team up with sixteen of the country’s authorities to introduce new protocols to combat corruption.

Arising from the results of a new national risk assessment to identify and assess Swedish authorities’ challenges in the area, it has since been emphasised by the authorities that it must be clarified what roles apply to individuals, and that increased cooperation is needed to strengthen the ability to prevent and manage the challenges that exist.

Fredrik Lindquist, who works with supervision and money laundering issues at the regulator, added: “We are currently procuring a service for verifying information on license applicants [and] licensees’ group structure, company information and ownership image.

“By constructing complex and cross-border structures with legal entities in different jurisdictions, one can hide the real principals and the origin of the money.”

Three key areas have been highlighted by the authorities which look at fighting corruption in the industry. The first states that the new multi-pronged partnership is to act as an information exchange and knowledge transfer between the participating organisations.

Participants must continue to identify, map and analyse risks and methods for money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as developing and compiling national risk assessments pertaining to the issues.

Finally, information must be provided to operators to contribute to their work against money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Spelinspektionen, which is to prioritise the prevention of money laundering and financing terrorism within the gaming sector, wrote in a media release: “A gaming company could be used as a criminal tool. Therefore, in our licensing, it is important to find out who are the real principals of the gaming company that holds or applies for a license.

“A gaming company must also have good customer knowledge in order to counteract the use of gambling activities for money laundering or terrorist financing.”