Spelinspektionen says the operator was targeting Swedish players without a licence.

Sweden.- The Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has banned Hitz Gaming OÜ from operating in the Swedish igaming market. It said the Estonia-registered operator was targeting Swedish players without a licence via several websites.

The regulator said it conducted a covert investigation and found that wisho.com failed to prevent the registration of an account from Sweden. It also cited the sites winnerz.com, trickz.com and celebrino.com. It said Hitz had promoted its services via Sweden-based affiliate nilslegend.net and has used the local payment service Quickbit and Sweden’s BankID as payment options.

Hitz Gaming OÜ stated: “The company no longer has contractual relations with the affiliates who have marketed the company’s games towards Sweden and has given instructions to their partners that no marketing for their websites may be directed towards Sweden.

“The payment service solution used is designed for the gaming industry, but not specifically for the Swedish market. The e-identification BankID is used for payment because it is the national authentication system in Sweden, in other countries the respective country’s corresponding system is used instead.

“Hitz Gaming OÜ thus believes that their games cannot be considered to be provided in Sweden, because they do not meet the connection factors to be considered to target the Swedish market. Furthermore, Hitz Gaming OÜ questions the applicability of the connection factor ’the company uses payment service providers that are registered in Sweden or are exclusively or largely used by Swedish consumers’.”

Hitz Gaming has the right to appeal.

Fine issued against lottery operator 

Last month, Spelinspektionen issued a SEK500,000 (€44,400) penalty fee against the lottery operator Folkspel for allowing a minor to gamble. The regulator had received several complaints reporting that the operator had allowed a minor to take part in the televised lottery show Bingolotto on December 23.

Folkspel itself reported the incident to the regulator in January, confirming that an underage person had called to the show via its phone line and had participated in a game. The regulator’s investigation found that the operator had no technical procedures or routines in place to verify identity or age when players phone.