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Åland-based online gaming operator Paf is to introduce a loss limit that means Paf.com customers may not lose more than €30,000 in a 12-month period.

This will be the first time that a non-monopoly operator has introduced a hard cap for gaming losses and is a key feature of Paf’s responsible gambling measures.

“We will continue presenting personal gaming history graphs to our customers and encourage them to use the tools we provide online for voluntarily setting gaming limits that match each customer’s individual conditions,” said CEO Christer Fahlstedt, pictured.

Ahead of the re-regulation of the Swedish gaming market from January, 2019, Paf is lobbying for similar measures to be introduced there.

“We suggested a collective hard cap for the entire market in our official comment letter regarding the re-regulation of the Swedish market,” said Fahlstedt. “Although our suggestion for the whole market was not employed as such, we choose to take the next step now and hope that the authorities will follow and introduce an obligatory hard cap.

“We don’t want to see people’s lives destroyed because of gambling addiction. There has to be a way back. We hope that Paf’s new hard cap will take us in the right direction,” he said.

Paf believes the cap will see the operator lose about five per cent of its income. In a statement, the company said it hoped the loss of profit “can be accepted by the people of Åland.”

With regard to high-rollers that may go elsewhere once hitting the limit, Fahlstedt thought it a price worth paying. “We will lose these customers,” he said, “but for us the annual loss limit is still something we want to commit to. The good sides simply outweigh the bad.”

The €30,000 annual loss limit comes into force on Paf.com on September 1, 2018.