Sweden Considers Online Casino Weekly Loss Limit
The Swedish government is considering introducing a new weekly loss limit of SEK4,000 for customers who play online casino games in the Nordic market. If introduced, it will be a replication of rules that were in effect last year during the country’s lockdown.
Sweden Proposes Loss Limit Reintroduction © Pixabay.
The Swedish government plans to impose online casino rules for Nordic companies, including a new weekly loss cap.
The new weekly loss limit of SEK4,000 (£325.58) is championed by the Minister for Social Security Ardalan Shekarabi, and if introduced, it would begin on 7th February and end on 30th June.
If implemented, it would see a replication of the rules that were introduced last year when Sweden went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, a SEK5,000 weekly loss limit was introduced and was originally due to expire in June but was extended, and the restrictions were eventually lifted in November.
Shekarabi said: “We are now again proposing stricter rules in the gaming market during the pandemic, as a result of the current situation.
“The risks in the gaming market require that we tighten consumer protection, not least to protect the most vulnerable consumers.
“In a situation where the pandemic leads to people becoming more socially isolated, there is an increased risk for vulnerable consumers to end up in or strengthen problem gambling,” Shekarabi added.
When the weekly cap was introduced last year, it was met with fierce opposition in the country. Swedish-facing operators including LeoVegas, Kindred Group, Betsson and Videoslots were very critical of the decision to limit losses.
Videoslots even went as far as to argue the decision via the Swedish courts, with the company claiming that the decision wasn’t compliant with EU law. However, Sweden’s Supreme Court dismissed the claim leading the company to take the case to the Svea Court of Appeal.
The company was seeking an interim injunction to bar the Swedish regulator from imposing the loss limit, and they also sought damages of SEK5.4m (£453,624).
Videoslots lawsuit stated: “It can be reasonably feared that the state will force Videoslots to comply with the regulation and thereby complicating the company’s operations and causing loss of income and profit,” the lawsuit stated.
“The damage is irreparable because the company cannot compensate for this lost income from other players. Some players can also be expected to quit the company for good. Videoslots may therefore need to leave the Swedish gaming market as a result,” it added.
The Swedish government’s decision to reintroduce the limit of losses is likely to enrage many in the industry, especially the trade body representing the interests of operators, the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS).
Last year, BOS CEO Gustaf Hoffstedt said: “I have previously stated that there is nothing as lasting as a political promise of something temporary.
“The government seems unaware that their own expert authority, the Swedish Agency for Public Management, stated that the leakage from the Swedish gaming market to the unregulated gaming market is alarmingly high.
“The leakage for online casinos is particularly high, where as much as every fourth gaming krona is played outside of the Swedish-licensed market.
“To extend restrictions that are disapproved by gaming consumers is to ask for continued problems for the channeling into the licensed market when it comes to online casinos.
“Thus, Swedish gaming consumers will lose out on the consumer protection that the Swedish parliament has decided will apply in our country.
“It is provocative that the Swedish government, in a rhetoric about caring for the consumer, in practice does the opposite,” he concluded.
This week, on hearing that the government was seeking to reintroduce limits, Gustaf Hoffstedt reiterated his warning that these restrictions lead to fragmentation within the industry. He also expressed his belief that it hampers operators efforts to reduce gambling-related harm.
He said: “As the system is designed, it leads to players who want to play for more money than the proposed limit start new gaming accounts with new gaming companies.
“The statutory duty of care, which aims for the gaming company to acquire an overall picture of gaming behaviour and offer support to risk players, is lost.
“When gambling becomes as fragmented as it becomes with deposit limits, no individual gaming company can capture risky gaming behaviour, and thus a cornerstone of Swedish consumer protection in the gaming law is lost,” Hoffstedt added.
The loss limit proposal is currently out for consultation.
