Swedish Gambling Authority voices support for “reasonable” deposit limit extension

The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has thrown its support behind extending temporary Covid-19 bonus and deposit restrictions until July 2021. In a response to a Swedish government consultation on the proposals, the SGA approved the extension plans first revealed this month. “The circumstances that formed the basis for the introduction of the ordinance on temporary liability measures due to the spread of the disease Covid-19 (the regulation) can be assumed to remain for a longer period of time,” the SGA said in its consultation response. “The gaming inspectorate therefore considers it reasonable to extend the period of validity,” it added. The support comes despite the SGA having previously opposed the introduction of the temporary restrictions, which include a SEK5,000 (£80) weekly deposit limit. In August, the SGA questioned the enforceability of the temporary restrictions as the development of databases required to police them was “not possible” by the end of 2020. In the consultation, the Swedish government questioned whether a licensee might be able to avoid the temporary measures by switching off its commercial gambling operations for the duration of the restrictions. Under Swedish gambling laws, if an operator does not offer commercial online gaming during a continuous period of six months, operating licences can be revoked. However, the SGA has said this requirement is “not absolute”, as it previously demonstrated by warning Estonian-headquartered operator Enlabs to activate its own Swedish licence in March after six months of inactivity. Enlabs later launched in Sweden in July. Furthermore, the SGA claimed it would not be a proportionate punishment to revoke the licence of an operator that had temporarily switched off its online casino offering due to the restrictions. The consultation expires on 23 November. Elsewhere, the SGA has fined Malta-headquartered operator XC Gaming SEK5m (£436,000) for offering repeated bonuses totalling SEK21,000 in the first six months of 2019. The operator had also reportedly given the player concerned in the case gifts, including a bottle of champagne. Swedish gambling laws prohibit operators from offering bonuses to players, with the exception of a single welcome bonus, a rule which has seen several operators fined since the market launched in 2019. XC Gaming was given a two-year licence by the SGA in December 2018 after the regulator questioned the operator had the capacity to take on Swedish operations. Its Swedish licence will expire at the end of 2020.