Swedish Regulator Warns Licensees About Bonuses

The Swedish online gambling scene has been fully revamped, repackaged and relaunched on January 1st with a fresh set of rules and regulations that should bring it closer to directives dictated by EU and making it much more enticing for foreign operators to join and open their businesses there.

For the purpose of watching over the upgraded market, now hosting dozens of internationally recognized iGaming greats, a new regulatory body (Spelinspektionen) has been instated in place of the old one (Loteriinspektionen)...

...and judging by the news, the overseers are doing their job of not letting a mosquito fly by without a permit just right.

A Word of Warning

Every Swedish licensee has received a letter addressed by Spelinspektionen in which they are kindly reminded of their duties and obligations when it comes to advertising their bonus offers and promotions.

The regulator wants to make it clear that under the new law, no bonus terms can be perceived to be unclear in any way whatsoever – and this intervention follows a certain quantity of players' complaints concerning bonus offers on some operators' online casinos.

Under new guidelines, the operator can initiate a bonus offer only the first time an individual plays at the site...

...and it has been found that some operators have been handing out these introductory bonuses to their players in several different forms. In addition and in some instances, these offers come with a misinterpretation of a new law and contain language that may be misguiding to players.

Several Operators Under Investigation

The regulatory body has commenced a full-on investigation of certain gaming companies whose bonus policies – that supposedly risk “attracting players to unhealthy form of gambling” - will be monitored closely from now on.

Spelinspektionen also wished to stress that, also under new law, offers such as cashback, discounts or any other impetus of a financial nature are to be considered bonuses. This letter has been sent out to all gaming operators who hold Swedish licenses as well as those about to obtain it.

The letter states, among other things

“It is also clear that a licensee can only offer bonuses the first time a player plays at the licensee’s game. If the license holder violates the rules, the authority can intervene with high penalties. The license can also be revoked.”

The notification also touched upon the matter of law being “unclear,” which was brought up by certain parties during one of the previous debates. It points out to a definition of the law stating that all financial enticements are to be regard as a bonus.

Sweden Aims For Content Diversity

Other than these minor hiccups, Sweden is a completely different market to that of only months ago...

... the American giant of the lottery and gaming industry, Scientific Games, has just put ink to paper for a deal with Svenska Spel, state-owned operator, whom they will be supplying with their Open Gaming System, Open Platform System and innovations in online bingo and video slots.

Source:

“Sweden warns licensees to respect bonus restrictions”, igamingbusiness.com, February 20, 2019.