Online Gambling Glitch in Sweden Made Losing Impossible

An online gambling site in Sweden battled a technical error earlier this week that made it impossible for players to lose. The site, called Mr Green, is an internet casino that operates out of Malta, catering to players in Sweden as well as other European countries, including Finland, Britain and Austria. 

The glitch involved a new game called “House of Fun” that launched on Monday. The game is set up like a virtual haunted house, and the goal is to find a way out. Players who tried out this new game between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning found that they could play as much as they liked, and that no funds would be withdrawn from their accounts.  

“What happened is that people could spend money without it being withdrawn from their account. It was just like being at an automatic teller machine,” explained Mr Green managing director Mikael Pawlo.  

Nearly 200 players benefited from the fault, but this Swedish internet casino has fixed the game, and is not allowing players to keep the money they won on the broken game.  

“We’re happy when our guests win, that is what makes us appealing. But in this case, it was a bit too much,” Pawlo admitted. 

While Swedish gambling laws help foster a state-run monopoly on internet gambling in the country, there are more than 150 online casinos in Sweden like Mr Green that are actually hosted in other countries, but continue to accept Swedish players, thereby getting around the local gambling monopoly. The European Court of Justice ruled last week that Sweden’s online gambling monopoly is not in violation of EU free trade laws, giving the state monopoly more power than ever, and ultimately making these offshore gambling sites an attractive alternative for Swedish players looking to gamble on the internet.