Svenska Spel, the Swedish gambling regulator has recently decided to stop all forms of advertising of all forms of its online casino products in the country for the rest of the year in a bid to improve consumer protection amid growing pressure from the Swedish government. Officially issuing the statement was Patrik Hofbauer – Chief Executive of Swedish state-owned gambling operator – who confirmed that beginning this month (April 2019), it would be ceasing and desisting from all forms of online gambling advertising. He further noted that the decision was arrived at following “intensive internal discussions” which found that one of the best ways of helping the Swedish Public Authority in dealing with problem gambling would be to restrict advertisements that promote online gambling.
The gaming regulator’s decision is set to impact marketing campaigns across all media channels including internet, television, and print. Fortunately, this does not impose any sort of blanket ban on advertising though. As such, many private operators in the country will have to adjust to the new regulatory regime but they will free to continue with the existing marketing plans so long as said plans do not infringe on any of the regulations that have been laid out.
The Stats
As it turns out, the decision to ban all forms of online gambling advertisement in Sweden was prompted by a recent study the country’s Public Health Agency. According to the study, while the overall number of problem gamblers in the country had dropped from the number that was recorded in 2015 when the first survey was carried out, there were a number of worrying trends that were beginning to crop up. One of these findings was that the online casino sector presented the greatest risk to Swedish gamblers – 30 percent of all Swedish online gamblers were found to be having difficulties in controlling their gambling habits.
Patrik Hofbauer pointed out that while there might not have been any direct link between online gambling advertising and problem gambling, there was a possibility that people who have gambling patterns that are reminiscent of problem gambling were likely to feel triggered by advertisements such as the ones that have now been banned.
The gambling operator’s chief executive further elaborated that the organization has always pushed that “all the games in the licensed market risk should be classified based on risk levels, and that stricter rules should apply for the riskier games, both in terms of design and marketing.” This is exactly what the new ban on online advertising is based on. Still, this is not very surprising, to say the least, especially considering the fact that Sweden has been known to be a very restrictive market for gambling operators.
