Spelinspektionen has reprimanded the Swedish Bingo Association (SBA) for not playing by the rules and unintentionally violating responsible gambling laws at a time when the country is preparing to enhance its control on the online gambling sector.
The Swedish gambling watchdog claims that the SBA has breached section 17 of the Swedish Lottery Inspectorate’s regulations and general guidelines on gambling responsibility. According to Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Bingo Association did not display the logos of the country’s gambling regulator for self-testing and bet limitation on its idrottensbingo.se platform as it was required to do.
Prompts and responsible gambling messages have to be displayed to players when they are logged in their accounts. However, such messages were missing from the home page of the aforementioned gambling platform, which is exactly the reason why the gambling regulatory body rolled out a review into the Swedish Bingo Association.
The Swedish Gambling Authority explained that the review of the operator revealed that the aforementioned Spelinspektionen logos were only placed at the top part of the page in logged-in mode. The SBA believed that such a placement was in line with the regulatory requirements.
However, Spelinkspektionen reminded that the logos are required to be visible on the home page in both logged-in and logged-out mode. In the case of the Swedish Bingo Association, their absence was considered a shortcoming in relation to the prescriptions of the country’s legislation.
The Company’s Shortcomings Not Willful, Swedish Gambling Regulator Says
The good news is that the review of the Swedish gambling watchdog ended with a conclusion that the shortcomings did not occur as intentional and willful misconduct of the Swedish Bingo Association because the Gambling Authority’s responsible gambling logos were still visible to players when they signed in their customer accounts.
Furthermore, Spelinspektionen shared that the Swedish Bingo Association had initiated some actions aimed at making corrections in the relevant areas while the case was still being processed. As a result, the country’s gambling regulatory body concluded that the violation should not be considered serious misconduct, although it could and should not be excused. The operator responded to the watchdog’s concerns and its comment was considered adequate. That is why the Swedish Gambling Authority stated that a remark was a sufficient intervention, considering the background of the violation and the actions of the gambling operator afterward.
Should Spelinspektionen have found that the gambling law breach was more serious, it could have taken much stricter action against the SBA, such as imposing a monetary penalty or revocation of the operating license of the online gambling platform. The revocation of operating permits has not been uncommon for the Swedish Gambling Authority, especially in the last few years. Only in November and December 2021, the regulator annulled the licenses of more than 20 Curacao-based gambling companies because of violations of the country’s gambling laws.
As CasinoGamesPro reported earlier, Sweden has recently reintroduced temporary restrictions on the local online gambling industry amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases. The restrictions, which include weekly maximum betting limits, are set to be deployed on February 7th and are expected to last until the end of June.
