Sweden to make stricter regulations on gambling ads

Sweden’s Minister on Public Administration, Ardalan Shekarabi said the government will be making more stringent regulations on gambling advertisements. He also summoned representatives of the gambling industry to parliament for a discussion on this topic.

“The Swedish people are tired of the extremely aggressive marketing, the unrestrained advertising,” the minister told SVT. “If the industry is unable to take responsibility and observe moderation in advertising for gambling, then I will not hesitate to progress with harsher, mandatory measures.”

Swedish government introduced a new gambling act to re-regulate the industry on January 1, 2019. The act stipulates that all gambling companies operating in Sweden be licensed, and that they must ensure gambling advertisements are restrained.

The act also bans direct marketing of gambling companies of individuals who have barred themselves from gambling. Over 20,000 people in Sweden have self-selected to be barred from access to online sites, but the minister noted that these rules were not being complied with across the board.

“We welcome the harsh measures, because right now, unfortunately, there are reverse incentives. The more careful you are as a gambling company, the more market shares you lose,” BOS General Secretary Gustaf Hoffstedt told SVT.

“We just got statistics from last year, which show that of Sweden’s 20 largest ad buyers, 6 are gambling companies, so there is far too much gambling advertising, there is no doubt about it,” Hoffstedt said.