Sweden’s new online casino restrictions are being challenged by a local politician who accused the minister responsible of misrepresenting the facts regarding gambling activity.

Last week, Sweden imposed new temporary deposit and spending restrictions on online casino play first proposed by Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi at a press conference on April 23. But John Weinerhall, a parliamentarian representing the Moderate Party, is asking the government to investigate whether Shekarabi (pictured) knew at the time that the facts didn’t support his argument.

Shekarabi’s rationale for proposing the restrictions was to protect consumers from harm during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, a period in which he claimed Sweden’s online licensees were seeing “strong progress” in online casino activity.

But following Shekarabi’s April announcement, Sweden’s Spelinspektionen gambling regulatory agency released statistics showing a decline in overall gambling activity since the lockdown began. Weinerhall said last week that email exchanges showed that the government was aware of this data five days prior to Shekarabi’s April press conference.