Casino Cosmopol has appealed against a fine imposed by Swedish regulator Lotteriinspektionen for failing to comply with national licensing requirements for money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to https://casinonutansvensklicens.org/, Svenska Spel's gaming business was fined SEK8 million (£700,500 / €777,900 / $885,800) last month after the regulator found evidence of a number of serious and systematic failings.
At the time, Lotteriinspektion reported that Casino Cosmopol may have been used to launder money. However, Casino Cosmopol has now appealed the decision, arguing that it was unfair to impose a set fine when there are currently no clear rules or guidance from the regulator.
The company claimed it had submitted an action plan a week after the initial decision to address both short- and long-term problems identified during the Lotteriinspektionen investigation.
"In the absence of clear rules and guidance from Lotteriinspektionen, the decision to impose penalties cannot be considered correct," said Per Jaldung, president of Casino Cosmopol.
"We have appealed against Lotteriinspektionen's decision mainly because we believe that the imposition of the fine is not proportionate in this situation," Jaldlung explained. "Sanctions can only be applied if other methods are sufficient for us, such as imposing new licence conditions on us."
During its investigation, the regulator identified a number of clear deficiencies at Casino Cosmopol over the seven-month period from 1 January 2017 to 31 July 2017.
These incidents included a player who spent SEK99,000 (£8,633 / $10,951 / €9,622) on slot machines in one evening, with the casino failing to record these transactions. The amount of money spent could only be ascertained after reviewing CCTV footage.
The regulator also highlighted several cases of lack of customer awareness, including the failure to identify customers who had lost significant amounts of money and the failure to take steps to assist a particular customer who had lost SEK 2.835 million since 2016.
However, in its appeal, Casino Cosmopol said that the regulator had not issued clear rules or guidance to address the issues raised in the investigation. The operator also noted that Lotteriinspektion had been monitoring its operations since it opened its first casino in 2005 and had been aware of its procedures for some time without previously raising concerns.
Jaldung added: "In all the years we have operated our four casinos, we believed we were in compliance with money laundering legislation.
"We have staff who deal with these issues on a daily basis. We have clear instructions and we train all staff so that they know how to proceed," he continued. "All guests have to register before entering the casino and visits are registered. We monitor, verify and report suspicious transactions to our finance department."
Casino Cosmopol filed an appeal on 17 December, but Lotteriinspektionen has yet to respond.
Sweden will launch its re-regulated market on 1 January 2019 and has issued a number of licences to various operators ahead of that date. Svenska Spel has been approved to offer both online casino and sports betting in the new market.