Sweden’s licensed operators may soon gain better access to personal data on player finances and gambling habits if a proposal by the country’s Minister of Financial Markets Niklas Wykman is approved.
Currently, the country’s licensed operators have the right to handle certain personal data under their so-called duty of care responsibility, which means they must ensure that social and health considerations are observed in gaming operations.
The law states that players must be protected against excessive gambling and also be helped to reduce their gambling when there is reason to do so.The fresh proposal from Wykman now aims to add the right to process personal data to the law so as to discourage problem gambling. This means that personal data from player profiles and players’ gaming behaviour may also be used as part of an operator’s responsible gambling measures.
In addition, the government suggests that gambling companies should be given the opportunity to review and analyse self-reported information about a player’s health and finances in order to counteract excessive gambling.
Wykman commented: “Through the proposal, we can ensure strong consumer protection in the gambling market and better help those who need to get out of gambling addiction.”
He added that the proposal has been developed after a follow-up by the State Treasury, which suggested it was important for gambling companies to have good knowledge of their customers to be able to fulfil their responsibilities under the Gambling Act. In this context, the right to process personal data to track players’ gambling behaviour in relation to their finances and health is crucial if gambling companies are to discourage excessive gambling, the government argued.If approved, the changes would come into effect from 1 January 2024.
Sweden’s Riksdag recently voted on another set of amendments to the country’s gambling law.
While parliamentarians rejected a proposal to adopt stricter advertising rules, they gave the green light for the introduction of a B2B licensing regime for gambling software suppliers.