Another European country is having issues with the gambling activities, even if they are not related to taxes and legalization bills. Svenska Spel – the main gaming provider in Sweden, was accused of disobeying the local rules and regulations, concerning the advertising of any sort of gambling products and services within the country.
The local gaming regulator, known as Lotteriinspektionen, have thoroughly investigated any attempt for popularizing gambling via advertising campaigns and properly picked marketing strategies that took place in the period July – November 2013. During the review, a considerable number of actions in contradiction of the newly imposed advertising rules were reported.
The exact number of marketing cases that were defined as absolute violations, was 72. More than 20 cases were on the verge of violating the implemented laws. Only 28 out of the investigated more than 120 cases in total, were reported as legal and allowed by the Swedish authorities.
Needless to say, the Svenska Spel representatives were not really happy with the Lotteriinspektionen’s report. They hurried up to respond to the piercing criticism of the regulators and announced that their top priority has always been complying with the established regulations but presumably there was some kind of misunderstanding. The authorities of Svenska Spel claim that despite their efforts, there were some clauses that had not been completely figured out. Plus, the Gaming Board failed in giving precise information about the design features of the advertisements.
The Svenska Spel’s standpoint became public when the Spokesman of the company – Johan Tisell, gave a brief interview for a local media.
Tisell also complained about the lack of feedback about the advertisements released and questioned the authenticity of the violations, the authorities have found during the review.
According to Tisell, Lotteriinspektionen is to blame for the current troubles. He said that Svenska Spel had tried to get a feedback more than an year ago but all their attempts turned out to be unsuccessful. He also added that some of the violations that have been found are familiar to the Lotteriinspektionen authorities. They were actually presented to them before their release and they haven’t been disapproved or criticised, which made those, responsible for the advertising of Svenska Spel services, think that there was nothing wrong neither with the design nor with the idea, put forward in the advertisements.
Another thing Svenska Spel accused Lotteriinspektionen of was the fact that they haven’t given them enough time to modify their marketing strategies and advertising campaigns and the organisation of the report as well as its timing were considered to be the main reasons for that.
Joakim Rönngren, the spokesman of Lotteriinspektionen, has announced that the report is absolutely truthful and he has no hesitations in supporting it. According to him, the number of violations of the new advertising law, have been reduced since the investigation took place.
