Kindred rails against ‘obstructive’ temporary Swedish gambling restrictions

Kindred Group has attacked Swedish government proposals to reintroduce temporary Covid-19-related gambling restrictions, branding them an “ill-founded” response to the pandemic.

Issuing a written response to the proposals, which would see a weekly SEK4,000 loss limit on all Swedish online casino gameplay between 7 February and 30 June, the Stockholm-listed operator suggested they would make it more difficult for licensed operators to function in Sweden.

“Kindred’s overall assessment is that the measures weaken rather than strengthen consumer protection, which is the stated objective of the proposed restrictions,” Kindred said.

“The restrictions will obstruct licensees’ duty of care and impact channelization negatively, something even representatives for gambling addiction organisations have noticed.

Kindred has implored the government not to proceed with implementation of the restrictions, echoing previous comments made by Swedish trade association BOS, which has also questioned the need for such measures to be reintroduced.

Kindred suggested that while the government’s other measures imposed to stem the Covid-19 pandemic were pragmatic in nature and successful, the restrictions placed on the online casino sector have been “ill-founded and did not meet the criteria of evidence-based policy making”.

The Unibet operator singled out Swedish Minister of Social Affairs Ardalan Shekarabi for making “groundless” claims that gambling on online casinos had increased during the pandemic – for which he received a reprimand from the Swedish government.

“The current proposal for gambling restrictions fails to establish explicit facts and concrete evidence as a base for the decision,” Kindred wrote.

“In contrast to our recent and positive response to the same government’s investigation report on match-fixing and unlicensed gambling, we struggle to find anything affirmative to ascribe to the ministry’s proposal,” the firm added.

Between July 2020 and November 2021, Swedish licensed operators were subject to a weekly SEK5,000 cap on deposit limits and a SEK100 limit on bonuses relating to online casino gameplay, something which in the case of loss limits is now at a lower level.

New proposals set to be introduced also include a 96-hour lock-out rule, where operators would be required to deny online casino access to players should they spend more than 96-hours in one session.

In its assessment, Kindred suggested the measures, along with the very short timeframe for implementation, would risk a “low-quality implementation of the measures and a random distortion of competition” in the Swedish gambling market.

“If the Swedish government, despite the serious objections raised, decides to move ahead with temporary gambling responsibility measures, the simplest and least problematic solution would be to impose exactly the same measures that applied during the previous restriction period,” Kindred concluded.