Swedish Duty of Care Guide Reinforces Non-Credit Gambling

Following in the footsteps of other player-focused gambling jurisdictions Sweden has reinforced its stance on consumer protections by releasing an updated Guide to Duty of Care.

The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate summarises the Duty of Care as follows:

“The duty of care includes that the licensee shall ensure that social and health considerations are observed in the gaming business. The player must be protected against excessive gambling and get help to reduce their gambling when needed.”

With the revised Duty of Care document in the public domain they then released a statement that specifically addresses their concerns and stance on gambling using credit.

The Pitfalls of Credit-Based Gambling

The Swedish government and several local research bodies including The Swedish Public Health Agency and The Swedish Consumer Agency have investigated the ties between problem gambling, indebtedness, and credit gambling.

The results of these studies have found that:

• People who have gambling problems often also have debts and financial problems
• Debt advisers stated that between 10% and 30% of those seeking help have been in debt as a result of gambling
• Gambling problems are also one of the most common reasons for the origin of indebtedness

This reasoning and the associated personal case studies were deemed to be a strong enough reason for the Gaming Inspectorate to deem gambling using credit an unacceptable practice for Swedish players.

 Swedish Licensees Face Legal Action

In the Duty of Care guidance provided by the Gaming Inspectorate, the social responsibility of licensed operators was highlighted and raised as a standard by which to address the issue of credit-based gambling.

The applicable law is discussed saying:

“The duty of care means that the licensee must ensure that social and health considerations are observed in the gaming activities to protect players against excessive gambling and the licensee must also help players reduce their gambling when there is reason to do so. The duty of care aims to protect the players' lives, health and finances and indirectly also the relatives of the players.”

This combined with the fact that the current Gaming Act (Chapter 14, Section 8) specifically bans gambling using credit-based funding methods is placing many online casino operations under scrutiny by the regulator.

The following statement makes their intentions in this regard clear:

“The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate, therefore, considers that it is not compatible with the duty of care that licensees in any way contribute to or encourage players to take out loans to maintain their gambling.”

They have called on licensed gambling sites to review whether they are directing Swedish players to deposit options that require or allow players to acquire casino tokens on credit or via bank loans and to cease offering these options.

This includes services that allow players to make deposits where the deposit amount is added to a mobile account which can be paid later as this falls within their definition of “credit”.

The one caveat that may save many operators and financial institutions is that the Gaming Inspectorate specifically used the phrase “only offers credit”. This means that any method that allows funding via direct bank deposit or in-person deposits will most likely slip through on a technicality.