The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has fined Kanon Gaming SEK7m (€623,395) for failing to react appropriately when its customers showed signs of problem gambling.
The SGA announced on Monday (June 24) that it had handed out an official warning and fined the Malta-headquartered operator, which operates the websites casinoepic.se, casinogami.se, frejacasino.se and lokecasino.se in Sweden.
Kanon, which is licensed in the country, was found to have breached the duty of care requirements by not responding to protect players when they showed signs of gambling harm and did not have special measures in place to respond to problem gambling among those aged 18-24.
“The company has not helped customers reduce their gambling when there has been a reason to do so,” said the regulator.
“They have not worked proactively and risk-based enough in cases where customers exhibit gambling behaviour that is deemed problematic.”
The SGA alleges that Kanon made only a handful of attempts to contact players who were showing signs of risky gambling and none of these initial contacts led to a follow-up.
“The Swedish Gaming Authority notes that none of the customers have received any welfare calls, nor have they been subject to restrictions or access restrictions,” it said.
The operator also did not have any established procedure for how the company should contact players in cases where problem gambling has been identified or suspected, the SGA said.
The regulator’s conclusions were based on data it requested on 24 gamblers, including those Kanon customers aged 19-24 who had lost the most money.
According to the SGA, 22 of those customers displayed clear signs of problem gambling and Kanon only contacted them directly to request source of funds information.
The operator claims that it sent automated responsible gambling messages to customers that exceeded certain deposit thresholds, but was unable to prove this to the regulator, the SGA said.
One customer that lost SEK289,974 (€26,000) was classified as “medium risk” by Kanon Gaming and despite claiming it had carried out “full customer due diligence” the operator was unable to evidence any of its contact with the player, the regulator said.
Kanon Gaming was fined €67,000 in February of this year by Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) for failures in source of funds checks.
The FIAU said that Kanon had allowed players to continue gambling without checks despite depositing large amounts.
In one case a player who deposited €21,000 over the course of a year was not asked for any documentation to demonstrate the source of their money.