Svenska Spel Sport & Casino AB has been given a warning and a penalty fee of SEK 100m (€8.7m) by Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s gambling inspectorate, for duty of care failures.
In response, Fredrik Wastenson, Svenska Spel Sport & Casino’s President and Business Area Manager, has stated that the operator does not share the same opinion as the authority and will be considering whether to appeal the decision.
In its report, Spelinspektionen noted that it began an audit of Svenska Spel’s operations on December 21, 2021, investigating how the operator complies with the Swedish Gambling Act’s duty of care.
The authority reviewed how Svenska Spel handled ten customers who lost the most money during the supervision period of October 17, 2021, to December 17, 2021.
In terms of the violation, Spelinspektionen declared that all customers during the audit period showed signs of excessive gambling; there was a lack of protection, follow-up and help to reduce gambling; and that Svenska Spel didn’t meet the legal meaning of the duty of care despite arguments by the operator that such regulation hadn’t been detailed enough at the time.
Within the report, it was stated that all Svenska Spel customers reviewed showed signs of excessive gambling including high deposit limits (10 customers), making large deposits (nine customers), large losses (10 customers) and several deposits a day (eight customers).
In addition, the customers reviewed also played at night (five customers), played several times a week (seven customers), had previous self-exclusions (two customers), had a long login time (two customers) and “changed their gambling behaviour in such a way that it increased” (two customers).
All customers during the audited period had the gambling monitoring tool’s most serious risk level of red, while two customers also had a dark orange risk during certain weeks and six customers had a high risk level for a long time.
Spelinspektionen determined that Svenska Spel had not taken “sufficient measures to protect the players against excessive gambling and help them to reduce their gambling when there was reason to do so”.
The gambling inspectorate also noted that the operator had “not fulfilled the obligations relating to the duty of care in the Gambling Act (Chapter 14, Section 1)”, so a warning and penalty fee of SEK 100m has been issued.
In response, Fredrik Wastenson stated that Svenska Spel doesn’t share the same opinion as Spelinspektionen and that it will be considering whether to appeal the decision.
Wastenson commented: “We take on board the Swedish gambling authority’s decision. The regulatory period covers October to December 2021 and we have already addressed many of the comments. We have a high level of ambition in our work with our responsible gaming.
“Since the duty of care was introduced in 2019, it has become clearer how it should be interpreted through the Swedish gambling authority’s guidance and supervisory decisions. We have adapted our work as the picture has become clearer.
“We are constantly developing our work, methods and technical capabilities to not only live up to the legislation but also our own high ambitions.”
Svenska Spel Sport & Casino noted that since the 2021 regulatory period, it has further developed its responsible gaming approach to include reviewing customers’ income who want to set high gaming limits as well as conducting more follow-up care calls.
Any customers who couldn’t be reached would have their account suspended until it was determined that they were in control of their gambling, while additional protective measures for customers aged 18-19 were introduced as well.
Wastenson concluded: “When it comes to how the risk of gambling problems should be assessed, we start from an overall assessment of the customer’s behaviour based on evidence-based research, our own impact measurements as well as current legislation.
“In its decision, the Swedish gambling authority makes a different assessment, which goes further than what can be deduced from current regulations. We will now consider whether to appeal the decision.”
Earlier this week, Spelinspektionen also issued a warning and a penalty fee of SEK 300,000 to Yggdrasil Gaming for non-compliance with regulations related to licensed supplier services/authorisations.
