The Swedish gambling authority Spelinspektionen says it is “not possible” to determine the effects of the country's temporary gambling restrictions. During the first half of the pandemic, the government introduced a deposit limit, which allowed players to deposit up to $480 dollars per month on their online casino games account.
In addition to the set deposit limit, other rules were also introduced. For example, players were allowed to play for a limited number of hours per day and casinos were only allowed to give away bonuses for a limited amount. All this in order not to fuel gambling addictions due to the pandemic, where there was less to do for people due to the lockdown. The government was afraid that people would look for entertainment online in the casinos out of boredom. this measure eventually lasted 1.5 years. In the end, the government wanted to introduce it again, however, this did not go through because the effects were unclear.
The regulator says it is looking at the success of the measures through a number of sights. It examined how and whether gambling habits changed, whether gambling problems changed, whether gambling-related debts became more common, the degree of compliance with the rules by the operators and even more facets. However, it noted that it was difficult to conclude from the results whether the measures had a positive impact.
