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The Administrative Court of Appeal in Jönköping, Sweden has reduced a sanction fee that was imposed upon Kindred Group back in 2020.
Spooniker, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kindred, received a sanction fee of SEK 100m ($9.46m) in 2020 from the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) for bonus rule violations in 2019.
The reason for this sanction was that the SGA regarded some of Spooniker’s offers, competitions and promotions to be financial incentives and therefore bonuses. At the time, Kindred immediately changed its offerings following guidance from the SGA.
The group did, however, appeal this decision to the Administrative Court so it could obtain judicial guidance to know how to interpret the new legislation. The sanction fee was then reduced to SEK 50m and in the latest development has been reduced even further to SEK 30m.
Kindred, though, believes the rules were vague and open to different interpretations, so is of the opinion that the sanction fee itself should be reduced in its entirety.
In other legal news, eight suspects, aged 33-42, have been arrested for defrauding casinos in Cotai, in Macau, for a total of MOP$4.54m.
In Sweden, meanwhile, the SGA earlier this month released new measures on match-fixing and illegal operations, with two new initiatives aimed at strengthening integrity in the industry.
