Sweden agrees on tighter payment blocking in gambling

Sweden is about to experience some major shifts in the way gambling is regulated in the country. Riksdag, the country’s legislative body, has awarded new powers to the gaming regulator, Spelinspektionen, which will allow the watchdog to step in and block payments to unlicensed gambling websites that have been targeting consumers in the country. This is not exclusively a new power in theory.

Beginning on July 1, Sweden will wake up to a day of strengthened gambling regulation, including an amended Gaming Act, which binds all market participants by its code of conduct and statutes. Spelinspektionen has been given the legal right to monitor licensed operators by registering on their website without making its identity known to operators.

In other words, Spelinspektionen will use the "secret shopper" verification system to ensure that operators are compliant. The regulator will have extended powers when it comes to personal data, its storage and sharing, in order to prevent offenses such as match-fixing, and operators will be held to a higher standard when it comes to disclosing information about potential crimes emanating from or linked to the gambling industry.

As to the text that specifically addresses blocking payments to unlicensed gambling sites, these aren’t new as such. The original text already had an extensive part in its law inscribed with those, but Spelinspektionen never used them because they were hard to implement in practice. This is now changing under the revised rules that will make it simpler for Spelinspektionen to step in and block the payments it suspects may be going to illegal gambling operators.

Spelinspektionen will also have the authority to also create new regulations that impact payment providers and the responsibilities they have in ensuring that such transactions do not take place. As to the matter of "secret shoppers" that will be representing the regulator as it probes for breaches of existing laws, operators are going to be notified about such registrations when it’s deemed appropriate.

The original text states that this should happen as soon as possible, meaning that the regulator would first seek to ensure that it reviews an operator’s offer and attitude. In the meantime, the regulator has been issuing fines as appropriate.

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