Online casinos fined in 2020

New Zealand casinos

Bethard is a betting company so received a remark and a penalty fee in June after offering bets on two U19 matches in which several of the players on the field were under 18 years old. $ 400,000 has Bethard Group had to pay in penalty fees.

Also the casino giant Betsson have received a warning together with a juicier sanction fee from . This after violating parts of the Gambling Act by selling vouchers to his gambling site via 7-eleven and the Press Agency. Since these two players are not registered gaming agents, Betsson has therefore been obliged to pay a fee. This fee got juicier when it also emerged that Betsson has offered unauthorized bonuses via benefits that are added for players who use Betsson Mastercard. The sanction fee landed at$20 million .

Also ATG got a remark earlier this year when, after technical errors on the website, it has been possible to play for more than 1 bonus per player. However, this was something that ATG chose to report to , and since it only concerned a few players, and that it was a short-term problem, ATG seems to have escaped both a warning and a penalty .

Violation of bonus rules

However, one of the larger sanction fees issued by the New Zealand Gambling Authority went to Spooniker Ltd, which, among other gambling sites, operates Unibet and Maria casino . After a review of all online casinos and betting sites under Spoonikers license, which has been going on since early 2019, has come across several cases where unauthorized bonuses have been offered. This is in connection with the fact that lotteries that are not covered by the gaming license have been available to New Zealand players. With this, Spooniker got a sanction fee of a whopping$100 million earlier in 2020.

But there are several bookmakers and players in the gaming industry that receive similar warnings and penalty fees. After the law on 1 bonus per player and license came into force in$aft 2019, Genesis and AG Communications have also had to pay larger sums when unauthorized bonuses have been distributed to players. Mandalorian, who drives boats Casino games and NoAccount Casino received a$ 9 million penalty fee in addition to a warning last year, as well as Betway receiving a warning and a$5 million fee.

Different fines depending on the case

When you read about the different bookmakers that have received warnings from , you see that it varies somewhat depending on why a warning or penalty fee is awarded. In ATG's case, it can be noted that it was a technical error that worried the bookmaker so much that they themselves contacted the authority. In other cases where it is seen that the bookmaker has deliberately violated part of the New Zealand Gambling Act, that it has been going on for a long time, or that it is something that has occurred on more than one gambling site under the same license is clearly something that gives a higher penalty in the form of penalty fees.