Svenska Spel to Terminate Online Casino Advertising

Sweden’s former main gambling operator, Svenska Spel, announced that it will completely stop advertising the company’s online casino offering during the whole of 2019.

The company decided to make such a radical move because of the concerns that the online sector could provoke the increase of the gambling problems in the Swedish market.

Svenska Spel officials decided to apply the advertising ban across all channels because they want to find the best way to protect their customers.

This operator, that was formerly a gambling monopoly in Sweden, but now competes with a number of private operators…

…managed to generate a turnover of SEK385 million ($41.7 million) during the first two months of the newly regulated market.

A Word from a CEO

“Svenska Spel has always pushed the line that all the games in the licensed market risk should be classified based on risk levels and that stricter rules should apply for the more risky games, both in of design and marketing,” Chief Executive Officer of Svenska Spel, Patrik Hofbauer, said.

“By ending advertising for online casino, we are now taking the plunge,” he added.

The CEO also noted that he believes there is actually no type of gambling that doesn’t really bring a certain amount of risk with it…

…but that online casinos bring the potential of gambling issues.

A Gambling Survey

He mentioned that the Swedish Public Health Authority issued a survey regarding excess gambling and addiction problems and found out that 30% of slot and casino players struggled with some sort of gambling issues.

On the other hand, a staggering 60% of online gamblers showed that they are forming certain types of gambling problems.

“These are facts that we discussed at Svenska Spel last week and that made us put our foot down,” Hofbauer said.

“Our online casino advertising already had a restrictive design, but now we have chosen to completely stop advertising for the rest of the year,” he added.

The Rise in Problem Gambling

The survey also found out that there was an increase in the number of gambling addicts compared to results from 2015.

“This indicates that those who are already at risk are adversely affected by advertising,” he said, adding…

“That is why we are now stopping online casino advertising: Simply because we do not want to attracting at-risk people to the most risky form of play.”

According to that, just recently Spelinspektionen, Swedish national gambling regulator, announced their new plans to stand in the way of excessive advertising in the newly regulated market.

CEO Suggest Others to Stop Advertising

“If you are serious about taking responsibility, then you should address the problems where the problems exist, even if it impacts revenue in the short term,” Hofbauer said.

“In the long term, this is the only sustainable option. It is also the only way we can improve the industry’s reputation.

“We would like more gaming companies to a promotional stop for online casino. It would show that the gaming industry is taking consumer protection seriously,” he concluded.

Source:

“Svenska Spel to cease online casino advertising”, igamingbusiness.com, April 9, 2019.