The Svenska Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s gambling authority, banned three online gambling operators for illegally offering services to Swedish players without a local license. The list of banned operators includes Aprodi Limited, Galaktika NV, and Newera Frozen PTE Limited.
Newera Frozen PTE Limited and Aprodi Limited were banned for offering illegal skin lotteries to players from Sweden. Skin lotteries allow players to claim collectible skins from video games via several different formats, including the option to wager a skin in order to win a more valuable skin.
More specifically, Newera Frozen PTE Limited used Hellcase.com while Aprodi Limited used Key-drop.com and marketed them via user-generated material on dedicated streaming platforms such as YouTube and Twitch.
According to Spelinspektionen, the content was specifically meant to target Swedish players, being that both Hellcase.com and Key-drop.com displayed the information in Swedish.
Hellcase.com had its FAQs (frequently asked questions) in Swedish, in addition to using a Swedish payment provider. In the case of Key-drop.com, the website had its terms and conditions, as well as its affiliate marketing website in Swedish.
Newera Frozen PTE quickly dismissed the allegations and claimed that they only sell loot boxes, a form of prize that according to them “cannot be considered gambling”, and that they removed the Swedish translation for the payment method Trustly.
However, the Spelinspektionen states that Sweden’s Gambling Act refers to all games where the prize has potential financial gains or any economic value.
The Swedish Gaming Authority believes that the skins sold on the website should be considered to have a value in money. The Gambling Act is therefore applicable to the game in question.
Spelinspektionen
The Curacao-licensed Galaktika NV, on the other hand, was banned for targeting players from Sweden via Drip.casino and for having its affiliate marketing information in Swedish.
As per the official statement of Galaktika NV, the company claims that it wasn’t targeting Swedish customers intentionally and that they outsource marketing to third parties, rather than doing that themselves.
Regardless of the statement, the Svenska Spelinspektionen stated that Galaktika NV still broke the Gambling Act by working with affiliates that promote their games to players from Sweden using affiliate websites.
