A Swedish court has ruled in favour of Roar Vegas, the LeoVegas-owned operator, overturning an SEK8 million (€735,000) penalty imposed by the Swedish Gambling Authority for failing to fulfill its duty-of-care obligations.
The fine was issued by The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) in March 2025 following an investigation into the conduct of three players, who had all exhibited symptoms of problem gambling; these included high expenditure, lengthly gambling sessions and large losses.
Roar Vegas contested this decision, arguing that it had met all appropriate regulations regarding responsible gambling and that there was no clear guideline for operators to follow as to when they should escalate their measures regarding intervention.
However, after an appeal to the Administrative Court in Linköping, the court agreed with Roar Vegas that, while the three players had exhibited high-risk gambling behaviour, Roar Vegas acted quickly to mitigate this by putting into place a variety of measures, including automated alerts, deposit limits and direct communication with customers.
Although the court accepted that there may have been some failure to act earlier, it was concluded that these failures did not reach the threshold of “clear and obvious” violations required by the Swedish law to enact further regulatory sanctions.
The ruling stated that the appeal shall therefore be granted and the Swedish Gambling Authority’s decision shall be overturned.
The SGA has three weeks from 12 June 2025, to file a notice of appeal. Neither the SGA or LeoVegas has released a public statement regarding the outcome.
