Sweden warns ATG over self-exclusion failures

Sweden’s consumer ombudsman has issued a warning to the operator for sending ads to self-excluded players.

Sweden.- The consumer ombudsman, Konsumentverket (KO), has warned AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) over failures to respect self-exclusion controls.

The former horse racing monopoly sent direct marketing messages to 77 people who had registered for self-exclusion from gambling using Sweden’s Spelpaus national self-exclusion platform.

It also sent 1,900 marketing messages to people who had requested to be excluded from receiving direct marketing.

The watchdog also warned ATG for failures related to displaying proper age requirements on some ads.

It warned the operator any subsequent failure to comply with self-exclusion rules will result in a fine of SEK3million (€285,000), while failures to post age limits on ads will result in a fine of SEK1.5million.

The KO launched an investigation in February after receiving complaints from people who had received marketing messages after self excluding. The complaint over age restrictions was made by rival operator Kindred.

ATG said it accepted the decision and that the marketing messages were sent out by mistake. It said the messages were not ads but account information, that it had notified the national gambling regulator Spelinspektionen of this and had taken steps to prevent it from happening again. 

It said the messages without age notifications were text messages that were sent only to players whose age had already been verified. 

This week Sweden’s regulator Spelinspektionen launched its own marketing campaign to raise awareness of the Spelpaus self-exclusion scheme.