Swedish online gambling trade group BOS is urging the country's gambling regulator to adopt a more risk-based approach to anti-money laundering supervision. Its request follows a comparative report that BOS commissioned from law firm Nordic Legal, so the conclusions represent an industry-funded assessment rather than an independent regulatory finding.
The report described by BOS compares Spelinspektionen with Sweden's Financial Supervisory Authority, the Stockholm County Administrative Board and the Schools Inspectorate. BOS says the study found the gambling regulator more formalistic and less focused on overall risk than its peers, including in its assessment of management suitability and choice of sanctions.
According to iGaming Business's account of the study, Nordic Legal reviewed 12 AML supervisory decisions issued since 2021. It said 11 relied on samples of five to 15 customer files, frequently without examining an operator's overall risk assessment, policies or procedures alongside those files.
The commissioned report also examined nine AML sanction decisions issued between 2022 and 2025. It found that seven penalties reached at least half of the statutory maximum, with two calculated at roughly 91% and 100%. By comparison, it put large-bank AML sanctions from the Financial Supervisory Authority at about 20% to 27% of the relevant maximum. These comparisons are the report authors' methodology and interpretation, not findings endorsed by the agencies.
BOS secretary general Gustaf Hoffstedt said the regulator should use methods closer to those of other supervisory bodies, with more dialogue and prioritisation based on risk. Spelinspektionen declined to comment to iGaming Business. The public disagreement therefore centres on enforcement method and proportionality; it does not remove operators' existing AML duties or change any sanction already imposed.
