Sweden tests new national self-exclusion platform

Swedish regulator Lottoinspecktionen has unveiled a new national self-exclusion platform, which will be introduced to coincide with the new regulated market opening in January 2019.

The platform, known as Spelpaus.se will enable all Swedish players to switch off all access to licensed sites for a fixed period or permanently.

Individuals must enter their 12-digit Swedish social security number as part of the registration process.

Under the new regime, licensed operators are required to check against the Spelpaus.se database to ensure that they do not offer egaming or send direct mail to any person who self-excludes.

New Swedish duty of care regulations require all licensees to “ensure that social and health considerations are observed in gaming activities to protect players from excessive gambling and help them reduce their gambling when there is a reason.”

These considerations include setting deposit and loss limits, login time and changing game behaviour for punters.

Regulations require licensees to have established procedures for contact with players in cases where excessive gambling has been identified or suspected. The licensee shall document any gaming action taken and is obligated to report how the duty of care is to be fulfilled in an action plan.

As part of the roll out, a test version of the platform has been created which allows operators to test the signing in process and registration for players self-excluding.

According to the Lottoinspecktionen website, the test site cannot currently be used for testing exclusion from marketing protocols and it “shall not be used for bulk tests, load tests or the like, solely for testing the connection and protocol to be used.”

API documentation designed to assist in this process can be accessed here.

The regulator also warned Friday it had taken 60 licence applications already and companies not submitting their information soon might not be licensed by January 1 next year.