Swedish gambling regulator launches ad campaign against illegal gambling

Spelinspektionen’s national campaign aims to discourage the use of unlicensed gaming operators.

Sweden.- The Swedish gaming regulator, Spelinspektionen, has launched a nationwide advertising campaign that aims to combat the use unlicensed gaming operators.

With the slogan “Games need rules“, the campaign promotes the message that playing with operators that do not have a Swedish licence “can be problematic”.

The campaign includes a series of three humorous films for social media that show people making up their own rules while playing board games. The idea is that this serves as a metaphor for illegal gambling companies, suggesting that those without Swedish licences are free to make up the rules as they go along.

The films star Swedish TV presenter Anders Lundin and link to a longer information video on the spelinspektionen.se website that provides more details about why players should opt for Spelinspektionen-licensed operators.

Communications manager Yvonne Hejdenberg said: “The purpose is to inform the public that there is a choice to make, between gaming companies that have a Swedish license and gaming companies that do not.

“The goal is for the public to gain increased knowledge about the benefits of choosing a gaming company with a Swedish license.”

Spelinspektionen announced a makeover of its self-exclusion site, Spelpaus.se, in a bid to make the site more user-friendly.

That comes after Spelinspektionen’s latest survey on gambling in Sweden found that in 2021, only 59 per cent of gamblers were familiar with the register, an increase of only two percentage points compared to the previous year.

It has also stepped up its enforcement actions against unlicensed operators, issuing injunctions against several Curaçao-licensed gaming operators including Disrupt Entertainment.