Swedish government ministers are reportedly considering a temporary shut-down of iGaming to keep harm to a minimum during the novel coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic.
According to iGamingBusiness.com, the country’s gaming regulator, Spelinspektionen has made the suggestion due to concerns iGaming operators will try to take advantage of a captive audience. It cited findings by affiliate marketing specialist BonusFinder saying there has been a 33 percent increase in online casino registrations and logins across 17 of the 60 licensees over two weeks.
But BonusFinder Managing Director Fintan Costello said more restrictive regulations will only send customers to black market providers. “The Swedish government will make a colossal mistake if it chooses to temporarily close down online casino sites in an attempt to protect players,” Costello said. “As our research has shown, almost a third of online casino players are already looking to the black market for a more attractive offering since restrictive rules were imposed in January 2019. These latest plans would create an immediate black-market boom.
“The focus should instead be on ensuring these are adhered to rather than taking a knee jerk reaction to close down all legitimate brands and forcing even more players to unprotected sites,” he said.
Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of the Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), Sweden’s trade association for online gambling, agreed that additional restrictions would benefit illegal operators.
“Sweden is struggling with low channelization rates when it comes to online casino, regardless of any possible additional restrictions for Swedish licensed operators,” Hoffstedt said. “To worsen the conditions for the Swedish licensed operators would not be a particularly smart move.”
