Mandalorian was one of the pioneers to obtain an online casino license in Sweden’s regulated igaming market in January 2019. However, their license was shortened due to a violation of bonus rules in May of the same year.
The Swedish gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, found that Mandalorian had offered bonuses to players on multiple occasions after they signed up with the operator. Swedish laws stipulate that licensees can only provide bonuses to players upon their initial registration with the platform.
As a result of this breach, Mandalorian was penalized with a fine of SEK9m (£787,296/€870,343/$1.0m). Additionally, their license period was reduced from five to two years.
Mandalorian appealed against this ruling, but the Administrative Court of Linköping rejected their appeal. The Court affirmed the justification of the financial penalty but disagreed with the regulator’s decision to shorten the license to two years. Instead, the Court ruled that the operator’s license should last for a period of three years, until January 2022.
In March of this year, Mandalorian was acquired by Åland Islands-based gaming operator Paf and rebranded as PAF Multibrand Limited. This new operator now operates the No Account Casino, No Account Bet, and Prank Casino brands in Sweden.
Spelinspektionen clarified its stance on license terms, specifying how the financial stability of licensees influences their permits in the country. Some applicants in 2019 were only granted year-long permits due to negative equity of the subsidiary companies through which they submitted their applications. However, some operators successfully appealed to the Administrative Court of Linköping, resulting in the issuance of three-year licenses, two years shorter than the maximum duration of five years. Spelinspektionen stated that it would utilize these court decisions as precedents for future cases involving companies in similar circumstances.
