Facing tough regulatory headwinds in its home market of Sweden, Global Gaming AV has reported that Q2 2019 has ‘been the most turbulent and difficult in the history of Global Gaming’, with revenues and profits bearing the brunt of the licensing decision.
After releasing its interim Q2 trading update (period April – June 2019), Global Gaming reports that revenues has faces a 42% hit in comparisons to the same period from last year, this has fell from SEK227.8m to SEK132.2m.
Global Gaming came under fire from the Spelinspektionen on June 17 after the decision to revoke SafeEnt’s operator licenses. The decision followed the regulator’s conclusion that the Global Gaming’s subsidiary was in ‘serious breach’ of Swedish gamblings AML Code and failure to meet the customer care-of-duty requirements.
CEO of Global Gaming Tobias Fagerlund commented on the tough trading period: “It is no understatement to say that the last three months have been the most turbulent and difficult in the history of Global Gaming.
“We published our previous report with the belief that the changes we had made with regard to the CEO post, the general changes in the organization, and the comprehensive and swiftly implemented set of other corrective measures would pave the way for our return to positive figures and growth.
“When we got to the month of June, we positively thought we could realistically expect to be back into black figures already in the second quarter, thus achieving the intended turnaround. Everything changed on the morning of June 17th, when the Swedish Gambling Authority announced that they had withdrawn – with immediate effect – the gaming license that lay at the foundation of the Group’s Swedish operations.
“The Swedish Gambling Authority justified its decision citing serious deficiencies in the business in matters of responsible gaming and Anti Money Laundering measures. Those who have followed the extensive media coverage of the decision know that we do not share the Swedish Gambling Authority’s opinion and have there-fore appealed it.”
