A study commissioned by the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling has compared Spelinspektionen's supervisory methods and sanctions with those used by other Swedish authorities. Law firm Nordic Legal reviewed anti-money-laundering supervision, ownership and management assessments, and penalty levels.
The report says the gambling regulator's reviewed AML decisions focused more heavily on samples of individual customer files. By comparison, Finansinspektionen and the Stockholm County Administrative Board placed greater weight on organisation-wide risk assessments, systems and procedures.
In ownership and management cases, the study found that Spelinspektionen intervened over late reporting even when it later considered the individuals suitable. The comparison agencies' published actions were more often tied to substantive questions about whether managers or owners met legal requirements.
The report also compared penalties as a share of each authority's available statutory maximum. Seven of nine published gambling-authority AML decisions from 2022 to 2025 used at least half of that maximum, while two were approximately 91% and 100%. The authors caution that the agencies operate under different mandates and legal frameworks.
BOS published the analysis to argue for more risk-based supervision. Because the association commissioned the work, its conclusions should be read as an industry-backed comparison rather than an independent ruling on the regulator's conduct.
