Swedish self-exclusion scheme comes under threat from ‘typosquatting’ website
EGR understands that players mistyping Spelpaus were previously redirected to Lottoland.se website
Online gamblers who had mistyped the website for Sweden’s self-exclusion scheme were temporarily being directly to Lottoland.se, according to the Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen.
Speaking exclusively to EGR, the regulator confirmed that individuals mistyping the domain name Spelpaus.se as Spelpau.se were redirected to the Swedish version of the Lottoland site.
The issue was only identified when individuals notified Spelinspektionen’s customer service department and the domain has now been changed to redirect players to the correct Spelpaus.se website.
A spokesperson for Spelinspektionen told Swedish news outlet Breakit that Spelpaus was about protecting consumers as much as possible. “If you intend to log on to spelpaus.se to self-exclude and then end up on a game site, no matter what it is, it is not positive,” the spokesperson said.
Spelinspektionen has said it has not been able to confirm if the website owners were operating as an affiliate partner of Lottoland, but clarified that as a licensed operator, Lottoland would be liable for any potential actions undertaken by this site should any link between the two be established.
A spokesperson for Lottoland told EGR they were unaware of the domain registration and link being used having only being notified of this on Wednesday but reiterated that it takes its responsibility to Swedish players “very seriously”.
The operator clarified that the link did now not direct players to the Swedish version of its site.
“We fully support the Swedish Gambling authority initiative in regard to allowing Swedish citizens the ability to exclude themselves from being able to use gambling services,” Lottoland added.
Lottoland currently has licences to operate online games and betting in the Swedish market, having commenced operations when the new regulated market went live in January.
Over 30,000 individuals have elected to self-exclude using the Spelpaus.se site since 1 January, with the regulator clarifying that most individuals electing to self-exclude until further notice.