Targeting “self-excluded customers” attracts Swedish injunctions

L&L Europe Ltd owned Karl Casino and Mr Green, a brand operated by William Hill, have attracted injunctions from the Swedish Consumer Agency (KO) after the regulator discovered that the companies had been targeting self-excluded customers as part of their marketing. Marketing to self-excluded customers is banned by the country’s Gaming Act.
L&L Europe and Mr Green have been directed to stop all communication with consumers who have registered with Spelpaus, the national self-exclusion system of Sweden.
KO process advocate Johanna Nyblom said, “The law is very clear on this point; the idea is that players who want to pause or stop playing should be completely protected from direct inducements to gamble, as well as from getting advertising directly on mobile devices or via email.”
In the judgement against Mr Green, KO mentioned that an administrative investigation was conducted against the operator in July, which revealed that Mr Green had been making contacts with self-excluded players via email and postal mail.
Mr Green, however, claimed that the communications with these customers were made in error, quoting issues with the mapping of data between the email platform and customer database. The operator said these errors have now been resolved, and that customers who have signed up with Spelpaus will not receive any more mails.
KO, however, maintains that since the operator had engaged in sending advertising materials directly to the players on the self-excluded list, this would be considered unfair and in violation of Swedish gaming regulations. Chapter 15, Section 2 of the Gaming Act prohibits sending of marketing materials to players who have signed up on the self-excluded list. The agency also warned the operator that a repeat of such an incident will attract a fine of SEK2m.
As for L& Europe, the KO had opened an administrative investigation against the operator in June, which had concluded that it had been contacting players on the self-excluded list via email and direct mail.
L&L Europe countered by sighting several cases in which it had contacted these customers – the first of which claimed that two players who were contacted had not provided their identification numbers to L&L Europe.
The operator identified this as an internal human error, adding that it has made amends to its routines and added a specific code that will automatically filter out the players who have not registered their social security numbers when data gets exported for marketing activities.
In two other examples cited by L&L Europe said advertising material was dispatched by a partner, and that the operator did not know about this. The operator said it has now ceased association with this partner.
The KO again added that L&L Europe was still in disobedience of the Gaming Act and announced the injunction. The agency also issued a warning that if the operator contacted such customers again, it will be fined SEK2m.