Sweden to Consider iGaming Advertising Ban

Swedish Gaming Market Commission, also known as Spelmarknadsutredningen, announced that it will be issuing a new investigation about gambling advertising in this European country.

Their plan is to assemble a certain number of new rules in order to stand in the way of excessive advertising in the newly-regulated online gambling market…

…which might even include a blanket ban on advertising.

Formation of the Market Commission

Spelmarknadsutredningen was established back in 2018 with an aim to investigate the impact of the regulatory expansion on both Swedish horse racing and sports industries.

It is a 19-member commission, led by special investigator Anna-Lena Sörenson, a former Member of Parliament.

This regulatory body had the task of setting up all necessary measures that would reduce the potentially harmful effects of excessive gambling.

Now, the Swedish Gaming Market Commission has another assignment…

…and that is to develop entirely new measures that would limit excessive gambling advertising in this country.

They will have to bring in their report by October 1 of 2019.

More Details on the New Measures

One of their tasks is to take into consideration various options and include more specific controls like the ones used for advertising of alcohol beverages.

They will also investigate if promoting bonuses, jackpots or bonus spins should be limited…

…as well as if the information on the probability of making a win should be more prominent.

The regulators will examine if they should introduce stricter controls, like limiting gambling ment during sports broadcasts or making them stricter during the games that are riskier for the formation of gambling problems.

A Word from the Minister

This new initiative was brought up a little after Swedish Minister for Civil Affairs, Ardalan Shekarabi, issued a warning to licensees about cutting down excessive gambling marketing.

He gave all licenses time until the end of March to make their own strategy on the more responsible advertising.

Also, Spelinspektionen issued a new set of plans to stand in the way of excessive advertising…

…which was followed by a new code of conduct that Spelbranschens Riksförbund (SPER) and Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) set out.

“The measures the industry presented to me contained good parts, but were far from sufficient to deal with the situation,” Shekarabi about the ban of excessive gambling ment.

“Now the government is taking further action to stop the aggressive gambling advertising,” he said. “It is about protecting Sweden’s consumers.”

Svenska Spel to Stop Online Casino Advertising

Sweden’s former gambling monopoly, 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.

Source:

“Sweden to consider igaming advertising ban”, igamingbusiness.com, April 24, 2019.