Swedish Trade Association asks government to reconsider deposit limit

(PRESS RELEASE) -- The Government has announced through the Government's Ardalan Shekarabi (S) that a proposal for a newly set deposit limit for online casinos is imminent. The design looks to be similar to the deposit limit that periodically prevailed during the years 2021-22, however, with the change that the weekly limit is lowered from SEK 5,000 to SEK 4,000.

The proposal is now for consultation, with the proposed start date of 7 February and the end date of 30 June.

The Association for Online Gambling (BOS) is critical of the proposal.

"As the system is designed, it leads to players who want to play for more money than the proposed limit starting up new gaming accounts with new bookmakers. Before the deposit limits, you played at one or two bookmakers, but after the introduction of the limits we have seen a sharp increase in the number of bookmakers per individual player. As a result, the statutory duty of care, which aims to ensure that the gaming company acquires an overall picture of gambling behaviour and offer support to risk players, is lost. When gambling becomes as fragmented as it gets with the deposit limits, no single gaming company can capture risky gambling behaviors, and thus a cornerstone of the Swedish consumer protection in the gambling law is lost, says Gustaf Hoffstedt.

We call on the government to rethink and safeguard consumer protection in the Swedish gambling market," concludes Hoffstedt.