Sweden’s Financial Police say gaming companies in the market filed 705 reports of suspected money laundering in 2020. That’s an increase of 14.8 percent over the 614 reports registered in 2019.
Sweden’s gaming regulator, Spelinspektionen, said only half of the jurisdiction’s approximately 70 licensed operators submitted reports in 2020, which may indicate an under-reporting from the gaming industry, reported CDC Gaming Reports. It also noted that a suspicion report does not prove that money laundering took place.
A spike in online gambling in 2020 due to the Covid-19) pandemic may explain the increase in suspected money laundering reports from 2019 to 2020, police said. They added that regulations introduced last year, including a controversial SEK5,000 (US$509) weekly deposit limit may have driven more customers to use unlicensed offshore operators.
The sums reported as suspicious were usually between SEK10,000 ($1,174) and SEK100,000 according to the Financial Police.
