Sweden’s new gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, is taking its position seriously, and has already issued two warnings to the country’s new operators this year. On January 1st 2019 Sweden opened its gambling industry to offshore countries after years of having a monopoly run industry by main operator Svenska Spel. Svenska Spel was formed in 1997 when state-owned Penninglotteriet and Tipstjanst amalgamated and has been offering the country’s regulated gambling products since.
In 2018 the Swedish government decided to regulate the industry and invited companies to apply for licenses to offer gambling products to Swedish citizens. To date, the regulator has issued 65 licenses and is processing a further 30 applications.
Licensees are required to observe the country’s new gambling regulations, which have a strong emphasis on the control of problem gambling. This means that each operator is required to block players who appear on the Spelpaus and may not target marketing and promotions at at-risk players.
Several operators were brought under fire by the regulator for failure to meet contract obligations. Among them allowing clients on the Spelpaus list to open accounts, sending out marketing materials to at-risk players and failing to ensure that self-exclusion tools are highly visible and active on the casino site.
Spelinspektionen warned operators that failure to adhere to the terms of their licenses would result in penalties as high as 10% of their annual turnover, the suspension of their licenses, and as a last resort, the cancelation of licenses.
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