Swedish Gambling Authority plots regulatory expansion bid

The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has launched a consultation on new technical regulations to govern the Swedish gambling market. The regulatory proposals were published in response to the Swedish government’s Gambling Market Inquiry report, which was first released in December 2020. The inquiry calls on legislators to introduce streamlined measures allowing the SGA to adapt technical rules and assessment procedures to specific regulated activities, claiming there are “insufficient conditions” for regulation to take place currently. “With experience of applying the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate’s current technical regulations, we believe that these need to be reviewed,” the SGA wrote. “The purpose of the proposed regulations is to adapt the technical requirements according to the type of game provided and the various risks that the game may entail. “The regulations that are now being proposed are based on the inquiry’s proposal for a new authorisation in the Gambling Ordinance. This means that the final design of the regulations may change,” the SGA added. Igniting the first step of this process, the SGA has now issued a draft document confirming several additions to its existing technical standards. The draft regulations include widening the scope of its remit to include retail lottery-based gaming and bingo gaming where an operator’s annual gross turnover is less than SEK10m a year. Those firms in question will now be required to obtain an SGA licence to operate in Sweden. These newly included operators will now also be subject to inspection, certification and testing protocols, similar to those used in the online market, with those protocols tested annually. A strengthened testing and accreditation regime is also included within the SGA’s changes. The SGA has further introduced a clause that would require licensed operators to verify registering players. “Verification of the player’s authorisation must be done through a personal and unique authorisation code once the player logs into the game system,” the SGA clause stated. The SGA has produced an accompanying impact assessment outlining the potential consequences for operators as a result of the strengthened regulatory regime. “The purpose of the technical requirements is that players should be able to assume that the games provided are secure and cannot be tampered with,” the SGA wrote. “To achieve a strong consumer protection and a high level of security in the game, it is necessary to ensure that gaming systems, and other functions important to the execution of the game, meet high security requirements.” The full impact assessment can be viewed here. The SGA’s consultation on the technical changes will close on 1 September.