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State-owned Svenska Spel has been fined SEK100m (€8.7m) for responsible gambling failings relating to some of its highest spending customers.
Svenska Spel Sport & Casino did not act quickly enough to protect customers who were gambling thousands of krone every day or impose strong enough measures to prevent them from experiencing harm, according to the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA).
The regulator assessed information relating to Svenska Spel’s ten highest spending customers during 2021, meaning it has taken more than two years to issue a fine.
The operator did not follow up on signs of problem gambling with safer gambling interactions beyond simple “nudging” messages, the authority said in its assessment.
Svenska Spel also did not follow up on whether the nudge messages were having an effect in reducing problematic gambling, and evidence shows the customers continued to gamble in large amounts, the regulator said.
All of the customers showed some signs of excessive gambling, the regulator said, including setting high deposit limits, making several deposits a day or playing several times a week.
Svenska Spel should have stepped in to restrict these customers and by failing to do so violated the duty of care requirement in Swedish gambling law.
In one case, the operator did lower a customer’s daily deposit limit in response to their high volume of gambling, but still set the amount at SEK100,000 (€8,743), which the regulator said was too high.
Svenska Spel did eventually impose much harsher limits on these high spending players, but should have done so early, the SGA said.
In one case, the regulator said, “it is remarkable that Svenska Spel Sport & Casino AB has done so little to help a customer come to terms with gambling that the company itself considered, for a long time, to have been at a risky level with an increased risk of developing gambling problems”.
The operator should also have reacted quicker to potentially problematic shifts in gambling behaviour and should have limited customers in the aftermath of “care visits” triggered by concerns over problem gambling, the regulator said.
In another case, a player was allowed to gamble without any additional limits for around a month after a visit had taken place.
The operator was also found to not be properly taking into account the length of gambling sessions in determining whether a customer was experiencing harm, the SGA said.
“We take the Gambling Inspectorate's decision to heart,” said Fredrik Wastenson, CEO of Svenska Spel Sport & Casino.
The state-owned operator said that the investigation related to events between October and December 2021 and said it has already addressed many of the failings identified.
“Since the duty of care was introduced in 2019, it has become clearer how it should be interpreted through the Gaming Authority's guidance and supervisory decisions. We have adjusted our work as the picture became clearer.
“We are constantly developing our work, our methods and technical ability to not only live up to the legislation but also our own high ambitions,” said Wastenson.
