A Swedish Administrative Court handed Kindred Group a big victory last week when it overturned a Spelinspektionen ruling regarding casino and sports betting account deposit limits. Thanks to some clever legal maneuvering, the licensed gambling operator has slipped through a loophole that may well be closed in the future.
At the heart of the matter is the question, “How much money can a Swedish player legally deposit in his or her account?” If you as the Swedish gambling regulatory authority, the Spelinspektionen, they’ll tell you its 500 SK ($581 USD) for online casino play. If you deposit more, a limit the player the player sets in his own, your play is limited to sports betting.
Spelinspektionen officials said that players were setting the higher deposit limits so that they could have more money in their accounts, and then unchecking the higher deposit limit, thus allowing that deposit money to be used for casino gaming. They expressed their distaste for the loophole by slapping both Kindred Group and the former Swedish horse racing monopoly AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) with a million SK fine ($1.2 million USD) and an injunction.
Kindred Group appealed the ruling to a Swedish administrative court that agreed with the idea that the law was only referring to casino play deposits and not all deposits. As a result, Kindred Group won’t be paying that million dollar fine and can continue accepting deposits as it always has, according to a report on Focus Gaming News.
The question now is how long the Spelinspektionen is going to allow the deposit loophole to stand before lawmakers rewrite the rules to close it?