Svenska Spel defends player protection record following criticism

[The Buzz]

Svenska Spel has responded to a recent Aftonbladet article criticizing its player protection practices, claiming the article misrepresented the company's efforts.

The state-owned gambling operator argues that the interview with their CEO, Fredrik Wastenson, focused on past operations, neglecting to acknowledge the significant improvements made in player safety since then, in collaboration with the government.

From the Aftonbladet article:

In Norway, where state-owned Norsk Tipping has a monopoly on online gambling, the monopoly company explicitly states that "consideration for vulnerable players is most important". Therefore, Norsk Tipping has introduced a loss limit of NOK 20,000 (around SEK 21,000) per month. More than that, a Norwegian player can never lose every month.

In other words: if the Norwegian rules had applied in 2021 for customer 4, the loss in two months would have been limited to around SEK 42,000. Instead, it was allowed to be SEK 324,953.

Fredrik Wastenson, CEO of Svenska Spel Sport & Casino, states in an email to 200 seconds:

- Although we do not have a general loss limit in the same way as Norsk Tipping or (Åland) Paf, we act in the event of losses and can then suspend customers from gambling, he writes.

Svenska Spel has other gambling limits, which look like this: Customers who play for more than SEK 2,000 per month aged 18–19, more than SEK 10,000 per month for 20–24-year-olds or more than SEK 20,000 per month for those who are over 24 years of age are contacted for a care interview. If the customer does not answer or refuses to talk about his gambling habits, he is suspended from gambling.

There are also limits on the amount of money that can be deposited into customers' gaming accounts without control. Anyone who is over 24 and wishes to have a deposit limit of more than SEK 10,000 per month must report their financial assets. For even younger players, checks are carried out for deposits of over SEK 5,000 or over SEK 1,000 per month.

In response, Svenka Spel posted this statement on its website:

Aftonbladet's editorial team 200 seconds has today, May 21, 2024, published a feature on gambling problems and gambling addiction in which Svenska Spel is mentioned. We welcome scrutiny of the gaming industry but want to clarify the facts.

Today it is not possible to play at Svenska Spel in the way described in the feature. Aftonbladet's reporting is based on events from, among other things, 2019 and 2022, and we have since strengthened our gambling responsibility work with a large number of measures, for example income review of financial ability and we act on loss amounts based on age.

Problem gambling is a huge tragedy for every person affected and also their relatives. Therefore, we work to ensure that our customers play within reasonable limits and do not develop problems with their playing. And we contact all customers who exhibit any form of risky gambling. When it comes to light that one of our customers has gambling problems, we suspend the customer from playing with us and try to help the customer get the right support.

Aftonbladet also mentions that the people in the feature playedwith several betting companies. This is a big challenge that makes it difficult for us as an individual gaming company to see the customer's entire gaming experience. We can only see how the customer plays with us. And we do everything we can for those we become aware of who have risky gambling behavior.

When it comes to how the risk of gambling problems is to be assessed, we start from an overall assessment of the customer's behavior which is based on evidence-based research, our own effect measurements as well as current legislation. Losses are only one of the criteria. There are several other parameters that indicate risky gambling in our systems and that we act on.

We have a great responsibility to act exemplary in all parts of the business, and just like all companies with a Swedish license live up to the duty of care and take a great gambling responsibility. That's why we work every day, all year round, to develop and improve our measures to prevent gambling problems.

Read the full Aftonbladet article here:
https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a...m-svenska-spel