After losing a court case against the gaming company Avento, the Swedish Gambling Authority, or Spelinspektionen, has reversed its views on licensing requirements.
It had previously maintained that maintaining negative equity was disqualifying for a gaming company.
However, after losing a case involving Avento in Administrative Court in Linköping, the agency will now not automatically reject licenses based on negative equity.
Avento was awarded a license in December 2019, but its renewal application was denied three years later on the grounds of negative equity. Avento sued and according to Gambling News, “the court has now declared that the rejection was unwarranted, given that Avento, the owner, is now operating under positive financial circumstances. The court further stated that negative equity is not always indicative that a business is incapable of fulfilling its license obligations.”
The agency insists that negative equity will usually render a license applicant unsuitable. An exception would be if the applicant was part of a group applying. In such a case the collective financial suitability would be considered, reported Gambling News.
