Swedish Gambling Authority Cracks Down on Violations — $1M Fine For Kindred

By Natasa Milojevic, Last updated May 9, 2025

Many of us recall how, in the not-so-distant past, the Swedish Gambling Authority got called out for not being strict enough. They weren’t that up to speed with punishing casinos, nor did they give their all to stop unlicensed gambling sites from targeting Swedish players.

Well, this month, Spelinspektionen understood the assignment, and the tables have turned. Not only did the regulator issue a formal warning, but it also fined the rule-breaker with SEK10 million ($1 million). 

Here’s how it all went down.

Back in 2022, it turned out that a Kindred subsidiary, Spooniker (the operator behind unibet.se, bingo.se, ottocasino.se, and mariabingo.se), didn’t exactly put a lot of effort into their money laundering and terrorist financing mitigation processes. At that point, they were issued a warning and a fine of SEK 10.9 million. 

Fast forward to May 2025, Spooniker was found lacking sufficient customer due diligence measures. For that reason, some of their players gambled really huge amounts — sometimes more than their entire yearly salary. Not once did Spooniker ask where all that money was coming from, nor did they have proper systems in place that would trigger warnings for suspicious behavior. 

Guess what happened this time? Kindred’s subsidiary was issued another fine —  this time one amounting to SEK10 million ($1 million). 

Will the SGA’s latest fine be the wake-up call Spooniker needs to get its act together this time? There’s only one way to find out, and it involves hanging around and closely watching all the parties involved. 

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