Swedish regulator issues final warning to licensed operators

Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has again warned the country’s licensed iGaming operators that it will issue financial penalties or cancel licences for those that fail to comply with licence conditions without warning.

The regulator explained that it has felt the need to issue yet another, final warning after receiving complaints and tip-offs about failings by licensees.

These, it said, mainly relate to the requirement for all operators to check players’ names against the Spelpaus.se self-exclusion register before allowing them to gamble or before sending them advertising.

Despite issuing a warning about the need to carry out these checks last week, Spelinspektionen said that has continued to receive complaints about self-excluded players being sent marketing materials.

However, the regulator noted that additional issues were being flagged. It said complaints had been raised regarding the design and clarity of operators’ websites. Companies are required to ensure all responsible gaming information is prominently displayed and to link to all relevant treatment and support bodies on each page of their site.

Spelinspektionen reiterated its promise to take action against licensees that fail to comply with this licence condition. It may issue orders to force companies to take action, which in turn could be accompanied by a fine of up to 10% of a company’s turnover. Should a serious breach of regulations be uncovered, the regulator says that operators will be at risk of having their licences revoked.

The regulator said that a key goal of market re-regulation was to channel players towards legal offerings and push unlicensed sites out of the market, ensuring licensees comply with regulations was equally important to the success of the market.

Going forward, Spelinspektionen said it would not issue any more warnings on compliance, and would issue penalties, orders and licence withdrawals without notice.

In related news, Spelinspektionen has issued online betting and gaming licences to lottery betting operator Lottomatrix. The Jackpot.com operator has become the 66th entity licensed by the regulator to date, after Dreambox Games, Ellmount Gaming, Legolas Invest, LeoVegas’ esports joint venture Pixel Digital and More Tech Group had applications approved earlier this week.