Swedish trade body merger talks collapse
Efforts to form a joint standard for self-regulation fail over differences concerning consumer protection
Plans to form a joint trade organisation to provide self-regulation guidelines in Sweden have collapsed following a disagreement over consumer protection.
The Games Industry Ethics Council (SPER) and The Association of Online Gambling Operators (BOS) were in discussions to provide overall guidelines for self-regulation, with the goal of forming a joint trade organisation after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last summer.
However, talks between the two groups have been abandoned, largely over differences concerning consumer protection best-practice.
Speaking to EGR Intel, Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of BOS, said it was “unfortunate” the Swedish gambling market has been unable to reach an agreement on a joint standard for self-regulation.
”From the online perspective, we believe in the value of knowing your customers before allowing them to play and in continuous tracking of customer behaviour to identify aggressive or otherwise alarming gambling patterns,” said Hoffstedt.
”Our individual centred protection system turned out to be difficult for the traditional gambling industry to adopt,” he added.
SPER has since announced plans to transform itself from an ”ethical advice” body into a trade organisation to ensure a ”high level of consumer protection” and strengthen its efforts for responsible gaming.
“Our goal was to find a standard that all parties could support and to form a joint trade organisation,” SPER secretary general, Maria Lindström, said.
“We reached unfortunately not all the way. For us the issues of consumer protection [were] central in the discussions,” added Lindström.
It also said efforts to make the transition into an industry association would “commence shortly”.
“The Swedish gaming policy is based on the goal of a healthy and safe gaming market,” said Lindström.
“It is important to take social considerations into account in the forthcoming regulation and requirements on how to market products and games. We want to gather all actors who want to pull together to achieve that goal.”