Sweden’s Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS) has called for a careful reconsideration of some of the regulatory gambling proposals made by the regulator, Spelinspektionen.
In a letter sent to SBC News, Gustaf Hoffstedt, Secretary General of BOS, reiterated that while the association welcomes Spelinspektionen’s proactive approach to modernising Sweden’s responsible gambling and tech infrastructure, some of the draft provisions need revisiting as they are ambiguous in their phrasing.
The recommendations made by BOS focus on building more clarity around the whole engagement chain between operators and players.
BOS wants cohesiveness of safer play rulebook
Spelinspektionen’s proposal to treat ‘nighttime’ play between 00AM-06AM as a marker of potential gambling harm was one of the first concerns raised by BOS.
The trade body labeled the decision as ‘arbitrary’, lacking evidence-based foundations.
BOS additionally cautioned that some gambling types like sports betting do occur overnight due to international sports schedules, and it would be objectively unreasonable to automatically label such play as high-risk.
Another area where BOS sees room for improvement is Spelinspektionen’s mechanism to detect problem gambling through the financial activity of an account.
The regulator sees the difference between the player’s stakes and winnings as a viable metric for operators to utilise when looking for signs of harmful play.
BOS insists that high stakes-to-winnings turnover could prove misleading given that winnings are often reused for continuous play rather than out-of-pocket expenditure.
Instead, the trade body proposes for deposits and withdrawals to be used as the main marker of harm, with stakes and winnings as a supplementary marker to detect play intensity.
‘Optimise the guidelines for operators’
On the operator side, Spelinspektionen has proposed a mandatory account suspension in cases when a licensee cannot reliably confirm whether a player has received feedback on their potentially harmful play.
BOS comments that forcing a suspension could prove disproportionate on a case-by-case basis, especially if a player’s behaviour has improved by the time communication has been re-established.
BOS therefore proposes for passive confirmations to be the norm, where proof of feedback is instead established through either verifying that a written line of communication is seen by the player, or tracking whether an account activity has improved.
Under the draft proposals operators would also be expected to intervene if a player “shows signs of mental illness or expresses a perceived excessive gambling behaviour during contact with the licensee”.
BOS argues that customer service staff are not medically qualified professionals to accurately detect signs of mental illness, and that conclusions should be limited to concrete statements volunteered by players during their point of contact with the customer support.
On the tech side, Spelinspektionen has proposed for players to be logged out after an hour of account inactivity, which is down from two hours as per Spelinspektionen’s previous proposals in 2022.
BOS claims that halving the inactivity timer is not scientifically backed, and would cause frustrations among players that remain logged in to monitor events in real-time. In addition, the trade body explained that forcing frequent re-logins would skew risk monitoring.
Calls to form a working group to avoid friction
In light of its proposals, BOS has also suggested that a working group be established to coordinate strategies for future decisions, made up of operators, aid organisations, researchers and other relevant stakeholders.
The working group, BOS added, would exchange practical knowledge about risk indicators, discuss how to approach different risk profiles, and evaluate the best approach for strengthening consumer protection without creating unnecessary friction for non-risk players.
Hoffstedt added: “In order for the regulations to have the intended effect, they need to be clear, proportionate, technology-neutral and practically feasible.
“Strong player protection requires that the licensed market remains attractive to players without identified risk indicators. The focus should therefore be on proportionate and risk-based measures, with more intrusive interventions directed at those players who actually show signs of risky or excessive gambling.”
