The Swedish government has threatened to take “extraordinary measures” against licensed online casinos during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis.
Gaming operators, who forked out a lot of money to operate legally in the regulated Swedish market, have hit back, warning that any move to shut them down or add more restrictions would be disastrous, pushing players to the unlicensed, unregulated black market.
Earlier this week, Ardalan Shekarabi, the minister responsible for gambling policy, warned operators that “extraordinary measures” would be taken if they didn’t take immediate action to slow the increasing gaming activity seen over the past few weeks as people have stayed at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Swedish regulator, Spelinspektionen, says there has been a 33% increase in new player registrations and logins for online casino games across 17 of the 60 licensed operators over the past two weeks.
According to market research carried out by BonusFinder.com, it seems nearly a third of Swedish online casino players are now searching for “unlicensed operators”, driven to find a better product offering, unstifled by the restrictive gaming regulations introduced in January 2019.
Commenting on Shekarabi’s threat, Managing Director of Bonusfinder.com, Fintan Costello, said:
“The Swedish government will make a colossal mistake if it chooses to temporarily close down online casino sites in an attempt to protect players. As our research has shown, almost a third of online casino players are already looking to the black market for a more attractive offering since restrictive rules were imposed in January 2019. These latest plans would create an immediate black-market boom.
“Swedish legislation requires operators to have strict responsible gambling procedures in place, therefore the right measures are already there. The focus should instead be on ensuring these are adhered to rather than taking a knee jerk reaction to close down all legitimate brands and forcing even more players to unprotected sites.”
AYO.NEWS says:
While we absolutely agree with Costello on this (that any move to shut or restrict licensed online casinos will simply push players to the black market), it seems certain that if the COVID-19 crisis and its associated lockdowns drags on, politicians and regulators will take increasingly draconian action to prevent what they perceive as a gambling crisis.
Just yesterday we reported the Belgian regulator had introduced a strict €500 weekly wagering limit, while operators have also received sharp warnings from the Dutch, British and Maltese regulators over recent weeks.
AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.
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