Sweden’s gambling regulator released a statement on Friday denying allegations that its self-exclusion register was the victim of a data breach. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Sweden’s gambling regulator Spelinspektionen is denying reports that its self-exclusion register suffered a data breach. It released the statement on Friday rejecting the allegations from a documentary on Europe’s gambling industry that aired on Tuesday.

Investigative journalists from several countries, including Sweden, worked for six months on a deep dive into the sector. In the first part of the series, one of the claims was a breach of the Spelpaus register.

confirmed that all information is fully encrypted

Spelinspektionen’s statement confirmed that all information is fully encrypted and that the register does not contain any phone numbers or home addresses of self-excluded people.

So far, more than 120,000 people have joined Spelpaus since it went live in January 2019, which allows people to block themselves from as little as one month all the way to indefinitely. One issue that the Swedish authorities are aware of is that some self-excluders were still receiving marketing messages from certain unlicensed offshore gambling operators.