Swedish Gambling Authority runs rule over operator technical standards
Regulator scrutinises five unnamed firms for potential breaches of Swedish law
The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has inspected the technical certification standards being used by five Swedish-licensed firms as part of a routine check of operator procedures. The operators, which have not been named, were required to provide inspection and testing certificates for all software being used to operate Swedish-licensed sites, as well as an investigation into a number of named games being operated. The investigation began in the autumn of 2020. SGA investigators were mandated to check whether these certificates were in date as part of duties contained within the Swedish Gambling Act. All supervisory cases have been closed without intervention against the licensees because the audit revealed the companies met the relevant requirements. The SGA has confirmed that all operators required to provide certificates in the future must do so to retain their Swedish licences. Under current standards, gaming companies operating in Sweden are required to put in place software which assigns each player a unique eligibility code every time they log in to the respective website. In addition to this, all game instructions and game rules should be clear and any instructions translated into other languages should match the original Swedish instructions. The regulations state that any licensee must obtain a certificate from an accredited game testing body, one which has been providing game testing services for a minimum of five years. Licensees are also required to conduct a “risk and vulnerability analysis on a systematic basis” and identify and document their information assets.