Swedish regulator hits FDJ subsidiary with AML penalty

Spooniker, a subsidiary operator of the French gambling giant FDJ United’s Kindred Group, has been hit with a SEK 10m (£778k) penalty in Sweden.

In a statement posted on its website, the Swedish regulator, Spelinspektionen, explained that Spooniker – a former Kindred brand but now part of FDJ after the French company acquired Kindred – has been found lacking sufficient customer due diligence procedures.

As per the statement, Spooniker had failed to identify the exact source of funds being processed through its systems, leading to potential exploits from bad actors.

“They have not been able to determine whether the customers’ activities were legitimate or whether they posed a risk of money laundering or terrorist financing,” Spelinspektionen’s statement added.

Repeat offences

From a glance, the penalty fee might look extraordinarily high. However, this is because the Swedish regulator sees Spooniker – the operator of domains such as unibet.se and bingo.se – as a repeat offender.

Deficiencies were first identified by Spelinspektionen  in 2022, after which a follow-up supervision review took place in 2024 to see how Spooniker has addressed the shortcomings.

Spooniker provided a detailed view into its risk classification system for customers, each one needing to register with an electronic identity verification (Bank-ID) under Sweden’s gambling framework. 

And while the firm has asserted that its origin of funds verification is on par with standards during the regulator’s preliminary review, the penalty remains a fact. A leading factor was the review of a number of customers using Spooniker’s services.

The regulator wrote: “Spelinspektionen notes that all customers reviewed have made deposits totaling between approximately SEK 620,000 and SEK 830,000 during the review period. 

“Apart from information on taxable income being collected on one occasion, no further measures are taken for these customers, despite the fact that they deposit between the entire taxable annual income and SEK 340,000 more than the taxable annual income.”

Signed off by Spelinspektionen’s Director General, Camilla Rosenberg, the report concluded: “The deficiencies are serious and repeated. The Swedish Gambling Authority considers that the penalty fee is proportionate to the seriousness of the violations.”

https://sbcnews.co.uk/europe/2025/05/07/spooniker-spelinspektionen/