Swedish Consumer Agency Warns Mr Green and Karl Casino for Self-exclusion Failures

The Swedish Consumer Agency (KO) has warned the online gambling operators Mr Green (MRG) and Karl Casino to amend their marketing activities or face stiff financial penalties.

The KO issued injunctions against the William Hill-owned Mr Green Ltd and Malta-based L&L Europe Ltd’s Karl Casino brand for promoting their products to individuals who had signed up for Sweden’s Spelpaus online gambling self-exclusion registry.

The KO says it launched its investigations into the two operators this summer following complaints from self-excluded customers who continued to receive email and direct mail marketing.

Both operators insisted that they had upgraded their systems to ensure future compliance but the KO warned that future transgressions of this sort will result in each outfit being hit with a financial penalty of SEK2m (US$208k).

The Spelpaus system was launched in January as part of the country’s shift to a regulated online gambling market. To date, a total of 45,612 Swedes have opted for some form of online gambling time-out, the options for which range from one month to “until further notice.”