Swedish Operator Bodies Established New Marketing Code

Spelbranschens Riksförbund (SPER) and Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), Swedish gambling trade associations, decided to establish a new code of conduct for the of this country’s online gambling market.

Too Many Gambling ments

The problem, which has been present for a while, is in the excessive gambling advertising that the Swedish regulatory body, Spelinspektionen, doesn’t approve of.

Swedish Minister for Consumer Affairs, Ardalan Shekarabi, was the first to raise concerns about the aggressive gambling advertising conducted by the licensed operators.

As a result, SPER and BOS took on the task of setting up a new code of conduct…

…that would regulate excessive advertising in Sweden’s newly-regulated igaming market, among other things.

All operators will have to adopt the new rules, beginning April 1, 2019.

Nine Key Areas

According to the new marketing code, there will be nine different areas that would have to be controlled.

First, all licensees will have to be extremely accurate in their ments and cannot present gambling the way it could deceive people or harm their confidence.

This means that all operators should not guarantee winning to gamblers in any way…

…and also should not claim that anything other than chance or luck could have an influence on gambling wins.

Secondly, operators shouldn’t encourage excessive gambling via their ments and also shouldn’t suggest that gambling can solve people’s financial or personal problems.

Third, all licensees must establish clear rules and conditions that are necessary for all gamblers if they want to use bonus promotions.

More Requirements

The fourth thing all operators must comply with is to refrain from creating ads that may be attractive to children. That means ads should not be placed near schools or playgrounds as well…

…and also, age restrictions must be highlighted in all ads.

All sponsorship, as part of the fifth requirement, must be accompanied by an agreement on social responsibility guidelines that operators must adhere to.

The sixth section talks about responsible gaming, which means that all licensed operators must clearly display a message regarding responsible gaming in their ad. Also, it is necessary that all operators offer links to services for gamblers that have addiction problems.

Final Three Sections

According to rule number seven, all operators must follow the Swedish Direct Marketing Association, International Chamber of Commerce and Interactive Advertising Bureau’s guidelines for direct marketing.

All forms of email and SMS gambling advertising must have a customer’s consent first, while all that material should contain an unsubscribe link as well.

In section eight, it is mentioned that all operators have ultimate responsibility for all content…

…even when the ment is carried out by third-party partners.

So, that means that all s and agencies must be aware of Swedish iGaming marketing guidelines.

And ultimately, section nine discusses penalties for operators that don’t comply. The public and industry stakeholders can issue their reports about violations of these rules to SPER and BOS, the Swedish Consumer Ombudsman, or to the country’s gambling regulator, Spelinspektionenm and the national consumer agency.

Source:

“Swedish operator bodies establish new marketing code”, igamingbusiness.com, March 28, 2019.