BOS Warns Sweden's Group Turnover AML Fine Cap Risks Double Punishment

Sweden's plan for the EU anti-money laundering package would let the regulator fine a gambling licensee up to 10% of turnover, measured where applicable at group level. The online operators' trade body says that base is disproportionate and risks double punishment.

• Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), Sweden's online gambling trade association, opposes a proposed anti-money laundering fine cap for gambling providers of 10% of turnover, or group turnover
• The cap is in the Ministry of Finance's July 2026 memorandum Fi2026/01654, whose consultation closes on 30 October
• BOS says gambling turnover is mostly stakes returned as winnings, so any cap should rest on Swedish gross gaming revenue
• Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court ruled in 2023 that Gambling Act fines must use turnover net of winnings
• BOS also opposes a central gambling account register in its current form, and wants new Spelinspektionen checks and fees in Sweden coordinated with the Gambling Act

Sweden's AML Rewrite Keeps a Turnover Cap for Gambling and Adds the Group

The Ministry of Finance's memorandum, EU:s penningtvättspaket, sets out the laws needed to adapt Sweden to the package adopted in 2024, including the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 and the sixth anti-money laundering directive, (EU) 2024/1640. A new Money Laundering Act would replace the current one, with changes taking effect mainly on 10 July 2027, the date the regulation applies.

Under the proposed Chapter 6, Section 14, the maximum fine for most non-financial obliged entities is the higher of twice the profit from the breach or the krona equivalent of €1 million, about SEK11.4 million (approximately $1.1 million). For a gambling provider, the cap could also be set at 10% of turnover "or, where applicable, the corresponding turnover at group level" in the preceding financial year.

The memorandum says this goes further than the directive requires. It keeps today's turnover basis for gambling, citing the government's reasoning in bill 2023/24:53 that it was unsatisfactory for some Gambling Act breaches to draw higher fines than money laundering breaches. Its commentary adds that only turnover from activity covered by the money laundering rules may be counted. Spelinspektionen would supervise licensed gambling in Sweden wherever the operator is established.

BOS Objects to the Base, Not the Package

In its response dated 29 October and signed by Secretary General Gustaf Hoffstedt, BOS backs the package's aim but rejects the group-level cap. Gambling turnover means total stakes, it says, and Swedish return-to-player rates typically average 94% to 97%. In its example, SEK100 million (approximately $10 million) staked at 96% yields SEK4 million of gross revenue, yet a 10% cap would allow a SEK10 million fine, 2.5 times the operator's income. For credit and financial institutions, BOS notes, the directive's 10% cap refers to the institution's own income, not client funds.

The group link, BOS argues, would tie a Swedish fine to gaming licensed elsewhere, expose operators based in other member states to very different penalties for identical breaches, and, if other states copied it, let the same consolidated turnover underpin fines in several jurisdictions. The draft law does not define "group", it adds.

BOS asks first for the gambling paragraph to be deleted, leaving the ordinary cap. Failing that, it wants the group reference removed, turnover defined as gross gaming revenue under the Swedish licence (stakes minus winnings, as for gaming tax), the percentage cap confined to serious, repeated or systematic breaches, and a safeguard like the one protecting financial institutions' liquidity and solvency.

A rethink is needed on sanction fees "to ensure proportionality, avoid double punishment and promote legal certainty", Hoffstedt said in BOS's announcement.

The Courts Have Already Settled the Gambling Act Version of This Argument

In HFD 2023:25, on 9 May 2023, the Supreme Administrative Court held that a Gambling Act fine rests on net turnover, with winnings deducted from stakes, and sent Genesis Global's SEK4 million (approximately $0.4 million) fine back to Spelinspektionen. BOS wants the money laundering cap to follow the same logic. The memorandum's commentary narrows the base to regulated activity, but only the group wording reached the draft law, and that gap is where licensees' exposure sits.

Enforcement Is Already Biting Under Today's Rules

On 3 July Spelinspektionen reported that a court had upheld warnings and fines against three companies, reported as SEK6.5 million for Betsson Nordic, SEK5.5 million for Snabbare and SEK10 million for Spooniker, while the bet365 appeal shows how far Gambling Act penalties can run. BOS has also pushed back on the regulator's safer gambling rules.

A turnover cap designed for banks sits awkwardly on a business that returns most of its stakes. Unless the ministry writes its own commentary into the law, licensees face an ambiguity over the fine base that the courts have already settled once.