ONLINE GAMBLING SITE REPAYS GAMBLER'S STOLEN CASH

1 January 2010

An unusual gesture by Internet gambling company

In Sweden an unidentified online gambling company has voluntarily paid back 4.9 million kronor (around $673 000) stolen by a gambling addict from her employer and wagered at its website.

The unnamed problem gambler was in charge of an Uppsala company's finances and siphoned off some 15 million kronor to finance her gambling addiction. The embezzled funds had an enormously adverse impact on the company, which had to lay off some of its employees as a result.

When the woman's unlawful acts were detected she was sentenced by a local court to three years in prison, and ordered to repay 10 million kronor to the company. The online gambling company subsequently elected to repay to her company the 4.9 million kronor she had gambled away at its virtual tables, conditional on a confidentiality agreement being signed by her employers, the Swedish newspaper The Local reports.

In court, the woman explained that she was able to lose up to one million kronor in one night playing on the gaming company’s website. Rules posted by the gaming firm stating that players could lose no more than Euro 2 500 in a 24-hour period were not followed, according to the woman, who was also the beneficiary of tens of thousands of kronor in bonuses in a restricted account, which she also quickly gambled away.

“It’s obvious that the gaming company understood that something was wrong. If the woman’s account of how the company acted is accurate, she has definitely been used and therefore it’s appropriate for a repayment to take place,” the prosecutor in the case, Kenneth Brattström, commented regarding the voluntary refund.

“I’ve never heard of anything like it,” Thomas Nilsson of the gambling research firm Spelinstitutet said of the repayment.

Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa

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