Swedish self-exclusion register surpasses 30,000
More than 30,000 people have now signed up to the Spelpaus.se Swedish self-exclusion register, according to national gambling regulator Spelinspektionen.
Introduced on January 1 to coincide with the launch of the country’s regulated market, the scheme enables Swedish consumers to block themselves from accessing licensed gambling services in the country and opt out of related marketing campaigns.
Spelpaus.se is effective across licensed online casinos, slot games and lotteries, as well as land-based services including retail stores and bingo halls.
Gambling operators are obliged to integrate with Spelpaus.se part of their licence requirements, with the regulator warning that those who fail to do so face punishment in the form of fines and potentially having their licence revoked.
A number of licensees have already been singled out by Spelinspektionen for failing to comply with this licence condition, with Genesis Gaming and Paf Consulting last month issued with fines after a number of consumers that had self-excluded informed the regulator they were still able to gamble on sites operated by the pair.
Genesis was fined SEK4m (£329,300/€383,150/$429,300) for breaching the licence condition, despite having already been warned about its activities by the regulator. Genesis had previously said that it had integrated with the register, putting the initial issue down to a third party’s system failing to integrate with Spelpaus.se.
Paf Consulting, a subsidiary of the Åland Islands-based operator, was also fined SEK100,000 for self-exclusion failures.
The Spelpaus.se programme also prevailed in a court case, when the Administrative Court of Linköping ruled that Swedish gamblers cannot end periods of self-exclusion before the agreed period.
The ruling was made following a challenge from a player who had attempted to have themselves removed from the country’s national self-exclusion database before the agreed period had concluded.
The Court said that if an individual could voluntarily end their suspension, it would undermine the purpose of Spelpaus, and therefore rejected the claim.
Image: Max Pixel