35,000 Swedish punters have self-excluded from betting within the country, with the numbers being announced five months after online betting was liberalized.
Betting is a popular pastime in Sweden, with large swaths of the population taking part in slots, table games, and sportsbetting. In an effort to keep gambling addiction from popping up as a significant challenge, the country's gaming regulator Spelinspektionen implemented a self-exclusion registry. All online betting operators must utilize the registry (Spelpaus.se) to cross-check the list and restrict access to betting for any punters on there.
Thus far, it appears that the registry is doing its job, as more than 35,000 people have registered to self-exclude, either temporarily or permanently. The registry seems to be largely effective, but there have been isolated incidents of operators not restricting access to players. Earlier this year Genesis Global was given a $430,000 fine for not complying, and Karamba was fined $321,000.
Comments
Wow that's quite a number for a market being online just for a period of 5 months.
Of course all the operators who don't respect that and comply the rules the proper way have to be punished and as we can see from the article the sanctions have been quite severed...and rightly so.
Have to agree here, I mean the number itself isn't that big, but it is if you take into consideration that it has happened within 5 months. I'm curious to see how it will change in the next months.