SWEDEN SET TO INTRODUCE NEW LOWER WEEKLY IGAMING DEPOSIT LIMIT

The Swedish government has proposed a new weekly deposit limit of SEK4,000 for online gambling that it believes will protect consumers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The proposal, which is due to be introduced on February 7 after a consultation period, is similar to the restrictions introduced in 2020 but lowers the weekly limit by SEK1,000.

Gustaf Hoffstedt of the industry association BOS said that the new scheme will be counterproductive as it leads to players opening accounts with multiple operators.

“Before the deposit limits, they played with one or two gaming companies,” said Hoffstedt, “but after the introduction of the limits, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of gaming accounts held by individual players. Thus, the statutory duty of care, which aims for the gaming company to acquire an overall picture of gaming behavior and offer support to risky players, is lost.”

The new rules are intended to run from February 7 until the end of June 2022. In addition to the weekly deposit limits, players will also have to limit the time they spend gambling online and operators will be limited to SEK100 bonuses, as laid out in the previous period of restrictions.

The SEK4,000 per week loss limit will also apply to those playing on state-owned gaming machines in venues other than a casino, as will the time limit and bonus rules.

Gamingintelligence