The Swedish government has announced an end to the country’s temporary pandemic restrictions for online gaming starting on 14 November. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
A review of the temporary measures
The Swedish government gets rid of its controversial limits for online gambling on 14 November. This includes the weekly deposit limit for online casino players of SEK5,000 ($ 586.73). However, the government asks the country’s gaming supervisory authority, the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate, to evaluate the effectiveness of these measures and to propose potential new ones that would strengthen the protection of players in both the short and long term.
There is a risk that this has led to a long-term behavioral change with increased gambling. ”
Minister of Social Insurance Ardalan Shekarabi mentioned in Thursday’s statement how turnover in the gaming sector has increased since the regulated market was introduced in early 2019. Shekarabi said: “There is a risk that this has led to a long-term behavioral change with increased gambling. It is a development that should be followed up to see if there is a need for further measures. “
The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate has until 15 March 2022 to submit a report analyzing the performance of the temporary measures. The rest of the report on potential new changes must be completed by 31 October 2023.
The reasoning behind the initial implementation
Sweden’s temporary restrictions originally came into place in June 2020 due to concerns about people’s gambling behavior during the covid-19 pandemic. The measures included a deposit limit of SEK 5,000 ($ 586.73) each week, as well as a bonus limit of SEK 100 ($ 11.73). Initially, these measures would be in place until the end of 2020, but they were extended until May 2021 and then again until 14 November 2021.
As justification for the extension of the temporary measures, Minister Ardalan Shekarabi said that the pandemic put a lot of financial stress on people and that the government saw continued risks for vulnerable people when it came to activities such as gambling.
The online gaming industry association, the Online Gaming Industry Association (BOS), had pushed for the temporary restrictions to end on 29 September. This would have been in line with the lifting of the rest of Sweden’s pandemic – related restrictions. However, these calls fell on deaf ears, and the government will now move forward with it a removal date of 14 November.
A strict market
The temporary measures were a controversial topic, with many stakeholders vehemently opposed their introduction. This included many major gaming operators who claimed that the borders would only lead to people moving to the black market. Even the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate suggested that the restrictions would only have a very marginal effect in reducing gambling problems.
The Swedish gaming market is very tightly regulated. Any faulty operators are treated in a strong way. Several operators have been fined a total of $ 1 million for a variety of failures, including the Kindred Group-owned Spooniker Ltd, which was fined $ 100 million ($ 11.7 million) in March 2020 for offering players illegal bonuses. Spooniker appealed the fine and had the penalty halved to SEK 50 million ($ 5.86 million).