January 11 2019: iGaming Intelligence and other media report that the Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has warned operators to ensure compliance with the market’s new regulations. The warning comes after the discovery that several licensed operators have failed to connect to the new national self-exclusion system for gamblers.

The new Spelpaus.se system went live with the opening of the liberalised gambling market at the start of this year, with the regulator revealing that 10,000 people have already excluded themselves from gambling during the first week of the new regulatory regime.

“Gambling abuse is a widespread social problem, so it is positive that so many find the new service and use it as a tool to refrain from gambling and avoid direct advertising from gambling companies,” said Spelinspektionen communications manager Anders Sims.

“We can see, not least in social media, that these people welcome Spelpaus.se and are encouraging those who have problems or are in the risk zone to block themselves from games.”

However, the regulator noted “shortcomings” in this area as not all licensed operators are currently connected to the Spelpaus.se system, which means that some self excluded players could still access their accounts.

“We have in the last few days investigated what this is due to and have found that everything seems to work well with Spelinspektionen,” Sims explained. “But for some reason there are a handful of gaming companies that do not meet the requirements set by the law.”

Spelinspektionen will send a letter to the operators concerned, urging them to quickly submit an explanation as to why these customers have been able to gamble despite appearing on the exclusion list.

The regulator added that the deficiencies are considered serious and that measures will be taken if the problem is not resolved immediately.