Why do bonuses in the gambling market look the way they do?
If there's one thing that online casinos lean heavily on in their marketing, it's bonus offers. Few, if any, have escaped the casino advertisements where one bonus after another is presented to us. Recently, however, the amount of bonuses has decreased and almost all gambling sites have similar bonus offers for consumers. In this post, we'll take a closer look at the reasons for the change and the basic rules that apply to bonuses in Sweden.
The rules in the Swedish gambling market
As mentioned, offering bonuses to customers is the main attraction of online casinos when it comes to attracting new customers. By visiting a comparison site that lists different gambling sites, you can easily find casinos that give you €10 free to play for, in connection with your registration. As a consumer, however, it can be difficult to know what rules apply to the bonuses and why they look the way they do. What perhaps most clearly distinguishes the Swedish gambling market from many others is the tight restrictions on bonuses. According to the gambling law that came into force on January 1, 2019, gambling companies with a Swedish license may not offer bonuses to their customers other than at the first gambling occasion. The term bonus includes anything that can be seen as a financial incentive, which means that even things like VIP offers and loyalty programs are not allowed.
Temporary measures until the end of the year
If you click on a comparison site today, you can see that almost all casinos offer similar bonuses to their potential customers – i.e. 100 crowns to play for in one way or another!. Typically, bonuses can be structured in a variety of ways and their size can vary considerably. The fact that they look the same in all casinos today is due to a temporary regulation that entered into force on July 2. In the spring, in times of social distancing and quarantines, the government saw an increase in gambling activity in online casinos – something that was considered to require certain measures to strengthen responsible gambling. With the aim of protecting the consumer at a time when the job market is uncertain and the country's economy is in a generally unstable state, the government proposed a regulation that was finally introduced at the beginning of July. One of the main measures of the regulation is that online casinos cannot offer customers a bonus exceeding a value of SEK 100. In other words, the tightening that came with the regulation is the reason why all gambling companies' bonus offers look more or less the same. However, as mentioned, the regulation is temporary and will only apply until December 31, 2020. It is possible to escape the restrictions on the Swedish gambling market by turning to other markets and gambling sites that do not have a Swedish gambling license. However, it is worth bearing in mind that the restrictions that exist in Sweden are largely there to protect you as a player. If you've been wondering why bonuses look the way they do today, you now have the answer. Sweden's already tough restrictions have become even stricter, and if you dream of bigger bonuses, you will simply have to endure until the end of the year, or turn to a site without a Swedish license.
