EGBA Raises Concerns Over New Swedish Restrictions on Online Gambling

The Swedish government has announced new temporary restrictions on online gambling as part of a series of measures to protect customers during the coronavirus crisis. The restrictions include temporary weekly loss and deposit limits of €458 for customers.

While the new measures are aimed to improve consumer protection, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) is concerned that they will harm more customers than they protect. The type and nature of the restrictions mean that they are not targeted, but could rather encourage customers to play with unregulated gambling websites which are easily available online.

“In Sweden, gambling advertising spending is down and we haven’t seen evidence that average customer spend is up. Even so, there is no compelling evidence that arbitrary restrictions on customer spend have a positive effect on safer gambling. The measures could actually harm more customers than they protect because customers can easily find black market websites where the restrictions, and any other social protections, do not apply” Maarten Haijer, Secretary-General of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), said.

Source: egba.eu