Paf has reached an agreement with Meta on a pilot project aimed at stopping unlicensed gaming companies. The work starts shortly. The goal is to build a model in Switzerland that can then be scaled up to more markets.

The pilot project was presented by Jesper Eliasson, Chief Business Development Officer at Paf, during the SBC Summit in Lisbon. Among other things, Paf will share license documents and URLs with Meta so that the platform gets a clearer picture of which operators are licensed and which are not. The material will cover both operators and affiliates.

Paf is the technology and knowledge partner of mycasino.ch, which is operated by Grand Casino Luzern. The site is the market leader in the licensed Swiss market, with revenue of more than 100 million euros a year. In the Swiss market, unlicensed operators work systematically to get around the social media platforms’ controls, and the European patchwork of licenses makes it difficult to establish who is actually behind an advertisement.

“The license can come from somewhere entirely different, and in that tangle of jurisdictions it is hard to spot. That is why we are focusing on Switzerland, to see whether we can build a model that can then be scaled up,” says Jesper Eliasson.

Regulators need sharper tools

Paf wants the cooperation to go further than the platforms. Effective channelization requires supervisory authorities to use the tools that actually work against unlicensed operations: cease and desist letters to operators and affiliates, structured cooperation between authorities in different markets – including US authorities, which have long experience and considerable reach – and the possibility of freezing the assets of operators that deliberately target a regulated market.

“We can share data and have good conversations with the platforms, but that does not take us all the way. The authorities need to use their tools – cease and desist letters, cooperation across borders and the possibility of freezing assets,” says Jesper Eliasson.

He also points out that stricter product rules – which also reduce the entertainment value – do not solve the problem in themselves. If the rules become too tight, players move on elsewhere online, and the effect is the opposite of the one intended.

Illegal operators must be stopped

Paf’s reason for engaging in this is the same as in everything else the company does. Players should be met by responsible terms, loss limits and tools that work – and that requires them to play with companies that take on that responsibility.

“I don’t want to share the market with anyone who has no license, has not paid for the license or the compliance work, and who also has no responsible gaming measures in place,” says Jesper Eliasson.

The first step has now been taken, and the pilot project is ready to begin.

“I don’t know whether we will succeed, but we have taken the first steps. We are having good conversations together, and Meta does not want illegal operators on its platform. So we keep working on it and see how it goes,” says Jesper Eliasson.

Whatever the outcome of the pilot project, the intention is to continue working together with Meta against unlicensed operators.