Camilla Rosenberg, Director General of Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s Gaming Inspectorate has stated that the regulator holds no objections to the re-imposition of temporary liability measures on online casino games.
Temporary restrictions on online gambling have been reintroduced in Sweden, as both the Government and the Inspectorate have concerns regarding the spread of the latest Covid-19 Omicron variant. Rosenberg asserted she has no objections to temporary liability measures being reimposed, but that it is too early for her department to comment on the ongoing and future effects of the policies.
The temporary measures were first introduced in June last year and included a SEK5,000 (€484) weekly deposit limit and a mandatory limit on play time. The reasoning at the time being that the Swedish Government considered lockdown to represent “a dangerous cocktail of several circumstances that may increase the risk of gambling addiction.” The new measures include a further reduction of the weekly deposit limit to SEK4,000 ((€387), to potentially run from February 7th until June 30th.
The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS) has criticised the new measures, arguing that they “diminished the duty of care operators have towards their customers due to players opening new gambling accounts in order to bypass stricter affordability limits.”
