A group of Swedish players are causing headaches for the Kindred Group after finding a way to circumvent the country’s onerous casino deposit limits. The all-too-clever players caused a big headache for the operator, while pointing out the absurdities of the hastily written, and hastily applied, casino deposit limit rule.
At the heart of the matter is a set of rules that were imposed by Spelinspektionen, the Swedish gambling regulator. Under the new rules, operators were required to impose a weekly deposit limit of $5,000 SEK ($591 USD) on casino players. Players were also required to manually set personal limits for casino play. These rules, however, did not apply to sports betting.
Eventually, a few players figured out that if they set their limit at 5,000 SEK, deposited the money and then lowered their limit, they could use that money for casino games. (This may be what people are doing with their time during quarantine.)
According to a report on CalvinAyre.com, less than 100 players actually figured out the loophole and took advantage of it. Though company officials say they weren’t aware of the problem at first, regulators disagree – pointing out that several of the players were suspended. Consequently, Kindred Group was fined 1 million SEK ($118,000 USD) for each week that they don’t fix the problem.
The whole mess surrounding the casino deposit limit seems less the fault of Kindred Group systems and compliance efforts than it is the fault of a hastily deployed regulatory scheme that left operators without time to properly prepare. The casino deposit limit rule has been extended through December, 2021.