Betsson and bwin among new firms dealing with Swedish self-exclusion issues
Operators sent communications to self-excluded players but confirm no play was permitted
Eleven further operators have been identified as contacting Swedish players who had previously self-excluded under the Spelpaus platform, according to reports in the Swedish media.
An investigation by Swedish media outlet DN found that firms including Betsson, bwin, Interwetten, Videoslots, Betsafe, Nordicbet, Intercasino and PlayOjo had all sent marketing messages to players who have previously self-excluded.
A further two operators, ATG and Genesis Global, were found to be sending non-marketing messages to players.
Responding to the investigation, a spokesperson for GVC Holdings confirmed any individuals incorrectly receiving communications “would not be able to set up new accounts or access their existing accounts” and that all marketing activity would be suspended until a review of systems had taken place.
Robin Olenius, communications manager for Betsson Group Sweden, attributed the error to “technical problems” in the customer matching system, resulting in self-excluded players not being properly flagged for marketing purposes. He confirmed that Betsson had “supplemented and improved” its matching system and was closely monitoring the situation.
Olenius added: “We would also like to point out that we are waterproof when it comes to logging-in and play; no customer who has self-excluded on “Spelpaus.se” is able to use our service.”
When approached, Interwetten attributed the issue to “teething issues” in its technical systems, while Genesis Global confirmed the email in question was a “service message” concerning the player verification process and as such did not violate Swedish regulations.
A spokesperson for Videoslots attributed the communications to a “technical fault” which has since been fixed. The operator confirmed it had issued a full incident report to the regulator.
Videoslots added: “Fortunately, no player who has registered with Spelpaus was able to log in and play on the site. As a matter of course, we will exclude anyone who has self-excluded via Spelpaus when we generate marketing lists.”
All licensed operators are obligated to connect to the Spelpaus database and regularly monitor for self-exclusions, denying access to any player who chooses to self-exclude.
Spelinspektionen has confirmed that it will issue regulatory fines to operators found to be offering gambling to self-excluded players and those firms who continue to do so may have their licences withdrawn.
The latest issues are a continuation of early teething troubles among operators, after Aspire Global and Genesis Communications were previously highlighted by Spelinspektionen as failing to connect to the system.
In both cases, the operators cited technical issues connecting to the database as the primary factor for the error and have since reimbursed affected players and closed their accounts.