Spelpaus: Gaming Blocker for Swedish Players
Spelpaus is a gambling self-exclusion register which was introduced to the online gambling industry in Sweden on the 1st January 2019. The purpose of this new scheme is to provide Swedish citizens with the capability of blocking themselves from all online gambling gaming sites, it also works to protect them from gambling advertising.
As this scheme is now a legitimate license condition, all Swedish gaming sites that still allow people to play without checking to see if they have signed up for self-exclusion, action will be taken against them which could involve hefty fines. Quoted from the Spelpaus website itself they state what the ultimate goal for this scheme is: “Our goal is a healthy and secure gaming market where the demand for games is met under controlled forms and where there is a social safety net.”
Features & Options
Since the launch in January, they have found that over 30,000 people have already registered themselves which continues to grow over time. It has been statistically measured that half of the citizens that have signed up are between the ages of 25 and 34 years old, with a large majority of these citizens signing up for exclusion to last twelve months or longer.
There are several options for people when it comes to choosing a time span that they would like the self-exclusion to last for, it can be for as little as:
- one month;
- three to six months;
- twelve months;
- option to be excluded until further notice.
As mentioned before, it’s now seen as a new responsibility for gaming companies to be checking the registry as they are not permitted under any circumstances to allow people who are within this register to play on their sites, be offered games or be sent any direct mail. However, some gambling companies follow British trends and open some online casinos not signed up to Gamstop and target self-excluded customers in the UK.
Why Register on Spelpaus?
There are a couple of reasons why gamblers have registered on Spelpaus:
- it blocks them from or in other words automatically opts them out from receiving any electronic marketing communication;
- it is also a case of enforcing responsible gambling as most gambling operators want to make sure that their gamblers are not putting themselves and others around them at financial risks.
For regular Swedish players that may find themselves in this situation, they now have the opportunity to step in for themselves and register for self-exclusion, it’s like a good healthy break for them or in some more serious cases it may be an indefinite one.
Some gamblers can form an unhealthy addiction to gambling, again in this case Spelpaus creates an opportunity for those gamblers to set self-exclusion for a time period they think is necessary for them.
How to Sign Up?
There is a direct website for Spelpaus that you have to navigate to in order to register for self-exclusion, once on the website you can immediately see the different options and time periods that you can self-exclude for.
Although we have touched upon these features lightly, in more detail you will see the first option for 1 month, this will disappear automatically once the month has ended. The second option is for 3 month which follows the same termination once that time span has been reached, you can then see another option for 6 months and the last one which states ‘Until further notice’, all of these options clearly state their purpose which is to ‘Turn off games and direct marketing’.
Each option you will see has the same purpose, but you get to choose how long you would like to set the exclusion for. What is absolutely brilliant about the Spelpaus website is that it explains in very good detail why it has been introduced and what the aim is, it also offers help and advice on gambling addictions and all FAQs about registering on the system.
To choose which time period you would like self-exclusion for you will have to create an account first and foremost, it’s a very straight forward process and again the website has endless amounts of support on there if you need to contact anyone for additional support or you can read the FAQs that have been provided to guide you.
Spelpaus undoubtedly offers great benefits to gamblers and we can expect this scheme to continue to grow miraculously within the gambling industry, with hopes that a global expansion could be on the cards.