AML neglect leads to Spelinspektionen penalising Mr Green

Mr Green has been fined SEK 31.5m by Spelinspektionen due to the William Hill subsidiary failing to fulfil its AML and customer care duties.

Mr Green has been fined SEK 31.5m (€3m) by the Swedish regulatory body – Spelinspektionen – due to the William Hill subsidiary failing to fulfil its AML and customer care duties.

Split into two, Spelinspektionen fined Mr Green SEK 30m (€2.9m) due to customer care failures as its team were deemed to have not undertaken “sufficient measures to help customers reduce their gambling spend”. 

In addition to the first fine, the company was also penalised SEK 1.5 (€140,000) for failing to maintain its customer reporting duties as a requirement of the Money Laundering Act – whose rules are applied within Sweden’s reformed Gambling Act 2018.

Spelinspektionen’s casework provided details on 15 customers that displayed problematic behaviours or AML criminal intent engaging with Mr Green between the period of January 2019 to June 2020.

The customers’ interactions were made available to Spelinspektionen by JIRA factsheets maintained by Mr Green as a requisite of its Swedish online gambling licence.

AML shortcomings noted that Mr Green processed multi-million SEK deposits for individual customers that could not provide any source of funds documentation whilst Spelinspektionen cited an instance where a customer was allowed to continue gambling despite having spent “six times his reported salary”.

Spelinspektionen SEK 30m fine was set by the Swedish Tax Authority’s assessment of Mr Green reported earnings during 2019-to-2020