The Swedish gambling regulator has prohibited Satoshi Gaming Group and its TrustDice brand from operating in the market after the company failed to follow through on promises to end its unlicensed activity.
Spelinspektionen initially contacted Curaçao-based Satoshi Gaming Group on February 6 this year over the presence of its TrustDice brand, offering the company chance to comment after the regulator’s observations of illegal activity.
Satoshi said that it had subsequently blocked Swedish IP addresses from accessing TrustDice after Spelinspektionen was able to access the platform from the authority’s IP address.
But Spelinspektionen said that, more recently, it was able to access TrustDice from a different IP address.
Spelinspektionen said Satoshi insisted in a March 6 statement that it had taken “additional measures” to maintain a block on Swedish customers accessing the site. Satoshi added that it would review and change any Swedish language content on the website, a key part of the criteria for the regulator to be able to crack down on unlicensed sites.
However, after Satoshi “did not specify when these changes would be made,” a later inspection on Thursday, April 10, from Spelinspektionen found that it was still possible to access TrustDice and that Satoshi “had not ceased offering gambling in Sweden, despite stating such an intention in its written submissions.”
The rules dictating the scope of Spelinspektionen’s powers to crack down on illegal and unlicensed operators are changing this year after a government intervention.
Earlier this week, Spelinspektionen reported how brands registered in Curaçao are posing a “significant challenge” to the licensed market in Sweden.
