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Spelinspektionen: Effects of Restrictions Are Too Difficult to Comprehend
By Shane Addinall Mar 21, 2022 IndustryThe gambling inspectorate of Sweden concludes that it is difficult to interpret the effects of its government’s temporary gambling restrictions tied to the global pandemic. Although they lack clarity on the impact, some details came into focus.Sweden’s gambling regulator concluded their partial evaluation on the impact of the government’s gambling restrictions during 2020 and 2021. According to Spelinspektionen, a range of factors deems it impossible to draw a definitive conclusion on whether any changes in the Swedish gambling market happened because of the deposit caps and other limits.
The Nordic country’s young, regulated gambling market faced pandemic-induced restrictions for 18 months and the government requested an impact report from Spelinspektionen. Following their four-month investigation, the Swedish regulator explains that the nature of the data makes it impossible to give a conclusive interim outcome.
Swedish officials gave the regulator until October 2023 to submit a comprehensive report and provide suggestions on future regulatory amendments.
Measuring the Impact
Spelinspektionen received instructions from the Swedish government in November 2021, when the temporary gambling restrictions expired, to examine the impact of these restrictions. The government came under heavy fire from industry leaders who believed the extended limits had no grounds.
During 2020, the Norse country’s government put in place a set of gambling restrictions to limit the potential harm from online gambling during coronavirus lockdowns. These limits included a SEK5,000 weekly deposit cap, time limits, and an SEK100 bonus offer limit. At the time, they put the limits in place for three months. However, the government extended the restrictions for 18 months, limiting Swedish punters from 1 July 2020 to 14 November 2021.
Spelinspektionen reports that, due to the number of variables during the measured period, they can’t establish the effect of the restrictions with the current data at hand. The inspectorate deals with statistical data impacted by three major events. Sweden’s re-regulation of their gambling market in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the temporary restrictions.
According to the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate, this makes it difficult to determine which of the elements contributed to specific trends in the gaming market. The report deems it impossible to know what the market trends would have looked like if they did not introduce limitations.
What They Do Know?
The interim report discusses the benefits of the regulations and downsides to the limits put in place. Sweden’s regulator asserted that in the event of a future crisis, tailor-made deposit limits should come into effect as the SEK5,000 was too high for some players and operators with more than one vertical found legal loopholes to circumvent the caps.
There is a need for focused limit details, according to the inspectorate, as players could gamble irresponsibly while remaining below the caps put in place. Because the cap applied on a per-operator basis, the regulator determined that players could gamble unsustainably and never reach a cap intended as a turning point.
Spelinspektionen identified other high-risk gambling products and advised that caps must apply to sports betting as well. The regulator added that a greater impact may come from operators taking accountability with their duty to care while observing player behaviours during such crises. The report concluded that gambling harm remained stable, as did other industry statistics.
Awaiting In-Depth Findings
The inspectorate now sets out to find more details and will have more industry trends available for the deadline for their comprehensive report due in October 2023. While global economies work on recovering from damages brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, online gambling seems to boost most regulated markets presenting useful statistics.
If this rings true for Swedish igaming, perhaps the regulator can paint a clearer picture in 2023 when their market experienced more balance.
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