Swedish gambling regulator backs credit card ban

The Swedish Gaming Authority has said that it is fully in support of a measure proposed by the government and seeking to restrict the use of credit cards for gambling.

The measure, originally pitched by the country’s government earlier in February this year, sought to remove an exemption that allowed certain gambling verticals and businesses to continue accepting credit cards for payments such as deposits.

The original proposal was criticized by industry representatives, including the Swedish Gaming Trade Association, which cited fears about reduced competitiveness of the regulated market and a further dip in its channelization should the proposal come through.

The trade group also reminded the government that it – this is to say lawmakers – had analyzed the impact of a credit card ban and concluded that it would not be an effective tool to fight problem gambling and gambling-related harm.

Yet, this argument has not swayed the final outcome, as Sweden is joining the ranks of numerous jurisdictions that have been quick to pass sweeping changes to their gambling frameworks in recent years and introducing credit card bans.

Among those are the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, and Ireland, as some of the most recent examples where a credit card ban has been adopted and rolled out. In the United Kingdom, the law goes a step further and expects operators to verify whether a PayPal or another e-wallet payment was not actually funded by credit.

Commenting on the government-backed plan, the Swedish Gaming Authority said that, moving forward, public lotteries would have to ensure that the digital tickets they sell to customers are not paid for in credit. One notable detail is that the onus is not on operators to actually check if a cardholder has a credit limit, which will make the measure easy to adopt as well.

The issue of credit card gambling has long hounded responsible gambling advocates and lawmakers, and in no small part industry representatives. Now, a definitive shift towards uprooting the practice has been achieved in several major markets across the world. In the meantime, individual federal jurisdictions in the United States have also been pushing for an end to credit card gambling.

In Pennsylvania, a bill filed by Senator Wayne Fontana has sought to achieve just that, ending the public’s ability to fuel their gambling habits on credit.

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