The Swedish online gambling association BOS has published a report by the law firm Nordic Legal. It finds that in decisions from 2022 to 2025, the gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has been stricter than other Swedish agencies in supervising anti-money laundering (AML) rules. BOS commissioned the report, and its authors are Nordic Legal lawyers.
The comparison covered three areas: AML supervision, the size and use of sanction fees, and the assessment of owners' and senior managers' suitability. Spelinspektionen was compared with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI), the Stockholm County Administrative Board and the Swedish School Inspectorate.
According to the report, FI and the Stockholm board take a systematic, risk-based approach. They review a company's overall risk assessment, procedures and controls, then check through a sample of client files whether these work in practice. The gambling regulator more often relies on a sample and individual client cases. Of 12 AML decisions since 2021, 11 were mainly based on reviewing 5 to 15 client files, and the regulator often left the operator's overall risk assessment and policies outside the scope of its review.
The gap in fine amounts is wider. The authors compared sanctions with the legal maximum for each agency. Of Spelinspektionen's nine decisions in 2022–2025, seven set fines at 50% of the maximum or more, and in two cases the fines were about 91% and 100%. FI's AML fines in major banking cases were roughly 20–27% of the maximum. The Stockholm board's share is usually lower, although higher figures did occur for serious violations.
BOS Secretary General Gustav Hoffstedt said Spelinspektionen is moving away from the standards of Swedish government bodies and is less focused on dialogue. He said the market would benefit if the regulator adopted the methods of other agencies. He added that Nordic Legal worked independently, although BOS remains the client. The agency declined to comment on the report.
In October, Spelinspektionen issued warnings and imposed sanction fees on Hillside Group: SEK 4 million (about $400,000) for the gaming structure and SEK 40 million (about $4 million) for the betting business.
