Swedish gambling regulator fines Videoslots over failure to counteract excessive gambling
The gambling operator has been fined €1.1m.
Sweden.- The Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has issued a warning and a sanction fee of SEK12m (€1.1m) against Videoslots for a failure to adequately counteract excessive gambling. The regulator determined that the company violated its duty of care provisions as outlined in Chapter 14, Section 1 of Sweden’s Gambling Act.
Spelinspektionen initiated an investigation in the spring of last year. After evaluating the data of 12 customers over a three-month period, it concluded that Videoslots had not taken sufficient measures to prevent excessive gambling and had not acted swiftly enough.
After a preliminary assessment in December, Videoslots said it had invested in systems and personnel to ensure compliance with its duty of care. It also argued that the duration of Spelinspektionen’s probe was not long enough to evaluate long-term interactions with players.
Videoslots argued that it had to carefully evaluate what data could be used to assess player risk levels since there are no provisions in the Gambling Act to allow access to personal data on player health and finances. Spelinspektionen dismissed this defence, stating that the Data Protection Regulation “does not limit the company’s obligation to comply with the gambling regulation’s provisions on the duty of care.”
Unsuccessful care calls
Spelinspektionen concluded that the 12 customers analysed had gambled excessively and that Videoslots had made insufficient efforts to prevent this behaviour. This included ineffective measures to reduce gambling, insufficient follow-ups on the measures that were implemented and delays in taking action and assessing results.
The regulator observed that although three customers had been flagged for excessive gambling, they had already been engaging in high levels of gambling for nearly three months. It took the opinion that the pop-up messages, emails and unsuccessful care calls towards the end of that period were ineffective.
Spelinspektionen said it considered the violations to be serious because they “negatively affected individual players in such a way that they have lost large amounts of money in a short period of time”. It also considered the young age of five of the 12 customers as an aggravating factor.
“Videoslots has not helped customers to reduce their gambling when there was reason to do so,” Spelinspektionen stated.
It added: “As stated in the Swedish Gambling Authority’s guidance on duty of care, this group is particularly vulnerable and should therefore be given special attention when implementing the duty of care.”
It noted the operator’s cooperation with the investigation but said this was to be expected. It also recognised that Videoslots has since improved its processes based on the report’s findings. This has included refining its systems for monitoring and evaluating intervention measures. It says these changes “give the company greater opportunities to monitor and, if necessary, restrict customers’ gambling.”
More enforcement actions
Also this week, Sweden’s Administrative Court has found in favour of Spelinspektionen in its enforcement action against Hacksaw Studios AB. The regulator issued the provider a warning and penalty in May 2024 for providing gaming software to two operators who lacked Swedish gaming licences.
The requirement for gaming software providers to hold a local licence was introduced into the Swedish Gambling Act on July 1 2023. The aim was to increase channelling and counteract illegal gambling. The requirement applies to all those who manufacture, provide, install and/or modify gaming software used in commercial online gambling.
Elsewhere, the Dutch gambling regulator KSA has issued a record €734,000 fine against a Dutch gambling licensee because the company failed to adequately protect young adults against excessive gambling and gambling addiction.In the investigation, a selection of 10 of its player files with the largest losses was examined. Violations were found in all 10 files.
These were young adult players (18 to 23 years old) who gambled away tens of thousands of euros in often a relatively short period of time, the KSA said.
