SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Stefan Widmark, Hans Eriksson and Petter Larsson, Westerberg & Partners
A licence holder may, under certain conditions, con- tract an affiliate (or a non-associated entity) to carry out operative work or functions in its business operations, provided that the licence holder remains responsible for the services in relation to its customers. Except for certain gambling services (eg, casino busi- ness and slot machines), a joint licence may be sought together with another service provider that is author- ised to provide gambling services within the EEA. 6.4 White Labels White-label arrangements are accepted and will require the entity providing the white-label product to The SGA may order internet service providers to include a warning notice clearly displayed on a gam- bling website that does not hold a Swedish licence. The notice shall include information that the opera- tions are conducted without a licence in Sweden, are not subject to Swedish supervision, and that potential winnings are subject to tax. 7. Responsible Gambling (RG), Also Known as Safer Gambling (SG) 7.1 RG Requirements All licence holders are subject to RGrequirements. This includes a general “duty of care” to: • ascertain that social and health considerations are observed; • counteract excessive gambling; and • help gamblers reduce their gambling when there is reason to do so. apply for a gambling licence. 6.5 Technical Measures All licence holders must adopt an action plan for how the duty of care obligation will be complied with. The duty of care obligation includes responsibility for mon- itoring all customers and, in the event of excessive gambling, licence holders may need to apply restric- tions and limitations; for example, by contacting the customer and/or limiting deposit limits and/or gam- bling time, or ultimately suspending the customer. Both feedback and restrictions should be applied at
an early stage to limit the potential harm that may be caused by excessive gambling. The central RG requirements of the Gambling Act are as follows. • Licence holders must make it possible for custom- ers to limit or suspend themselves from gambling – in practice, this is conducted by use of the suspen- sion registry, which is operated by the SGA. • People under the age of 18 are not permitted to gamble. • Licence holders are not permitted to provide credit nor to imply such is on offer. • Except for non-profit gambling operations, bonus offers are only allowed the first time the customer participates in gambling with the licence holder. Moreover, the SGA has provided a guide featuring examples of how signs of excessive gambling can be identified, and which individualised measures the SGA expects licence holders to take when customers show signs of excessive gambling. Factors to consider in this regard are: • gambling patterns – active gambling time, chasing losses, types of games, increased deposit limits, interrupted withdrawals, deposit failures; • contact with the licence holder – claims to win back losses, agitated behaviour, mentioning of financial problems; and • other factors – previous self-exclusion, age (ages 18 to 24 considered high-risk). In addition to the RG requirements in the Gambling Act, the SGA has issued RG regulations in LIFS 2018:2, which includes certain deposit, loss and ses- sion limits. 7.2 Gambling Management Tools The following RG management tools are required to be implemented for all Swedish licence holders: • obligation for the player to set a deposit limit, and possibility to set daily, weekly and monthly limits – any increase in the limit will be effective after 72 hours, but any decrease of the limit will have to be implemented immediately;
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