Duel.com banned in Sweden, but the operator won’t conform

The Swedish Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen, has issued an immediate ban to Immortal Snail LLC – the operating company of notorious offshore operator duel.com. Duel.com has risen to prominence in recent years for its outrageous marketing tactics, through which it has become a prime example of a complete stain on the industry. According to the Blask Index, the bookmaker has a presence in the US, Canada, India, Finland, Germany, Poland, Norway and Spain, alongside Sweden. Duel.com does not have a licence to operate in any of these markets. The company operates a .com platform under a licence from the Anjouan Gaming Authority. Spelinspektionen has clamped down on this “in the interests of consumer protection” – something that arguably any regulator of a jurisdiction where the platform is present should be doing. Why issuing duel.com with a ban is pointless The big question mark is whether this is actually enforceable. Many illegal operators simply don’t pay penalty fees or cease operations when handed notices by regulators. Initial red flags arrive in spades in Immortal Snail’s response to the banning order. Spelinspektionen’s filing states: “Immortal Snail LLC has made a statement and states the following. The company has stated that Swedish is an international language and stated that Sweden as a country should be IP-blocked. “Furthermore, the company has stated that the company cannot control whether payments are made in the Swedish currency SEK. Finally, the company has stated that the company should not cease offering Swedish as a language on the website.” That wording already explicitly shows resistance from duel.com with its refusal to remove the Swedish language from its platform. What is also concerning is its specific reference to IP-blocking Sweden. There is no mention of geofencing measures to protect Swedish consumers, who may just use a VPN. Furthermore, these apparent fixes have not even been implemented. Spelinspektionen’s investigation “revealed that the IP blocking against Sweden has not been implemented”. “The Swedish currency SEK and Swedish as a language still appear when logging in from a Swedish IP address,” the regulator added. “Furthermore, the authority has noted continued Swedish-language marketing of the company’s website duel.com.” This latest instance of rule breaking from the operator should not come as a surprise. Its outlandish marketing tactics continue to plague social media, one example being inviting adult content creators to perform sex acts over blackjack tables. Its ugly advertising avalanche is not limited to that, however. Other clips have seen the business being marketed via paid actors dressing in Nazi German era military uniforms. If there was any example of the responsibility of Big Tech companies to clamp down on illegal operators, something the regulated industry and regulators like the UK’s Gambling Commission have been calling for, it’d be this. A ban in Sweden, which likely won’t be listened to by the Saint Kitts and Nevis-based operator, is hardly a major development, but its carefree attitude and egregious routes of targeted marketing towards impressionable teens and young adults needs addressing. Many jurisdictions have taken umbrage with the lack of enforcement action from Big Tech firms on illegal operators – Dutch trade body VNLOK has even summoned Meta to court. On the flip side, Aland Islands operator Paf recently agreed an experimental deal with Meta which has an end goal of restricting illegal adverts. If Meta wants to take this seriously, duel.com’s advertising and operations should be the first on the list to be completely eradicated from its platforms.