Swedish Court Acquits Poker Bot Defendants
Key Takeaways
  • The Swedish Court of Appeal has acquitted five people accused of operating poker bots on the state regulated Svenska Spel online poker site.
  • Svenska Spel identified the activity early in 2013 and suspended 14 accounts while referring the case to the police for investigation. Subsequently, Svenska Spel paid SEK 3.8 million (approximately USD $586k) to players it identified as having been affected by the bots.
  • The Court of Appeal ruled that “it is not proven that the procedure entailed harm to the plaintiffs or gain to the defendants in the manner required for liability for fraud.”

The Swedish Court of Appeal has acquitted five people accused of operating poker bots on the state-regulated Svenska Spel online poker site.

The five designed a computer program to play online poker—a poker bot—and were originally convicted of serious fraud in a district court. The initial guilty verdict resulted in a sentence of probation for the defendants.

Both they and Svenska Spel appealed the verdict, which the Appeal Court has overturned.