The Swedish government may change the criteria that determine whether a gambling company without a Swedish licence is judged to be targeting Swedish consumers.
The government has listened to calls from Swedish gambling trade association BOS, which called for a review into a “loophole” in the gambling legislation which it said is fuelling illegal activity.
Marcus Isgren, the chairman and head of the Swedish Board of Consumer Complaints, has been appointed as the state investigator by the government.
Isgren must present his assessment of the situation and any recommendations by September 17 this year.
“We have advocated an amendment to the Gambling Act in this regard ever since the reregulation of the Swedish gambling market in 2019,” said secretary general Gustaf Hoffstedt.
“It became apparent fairly immediately after the reregulation that the gambling licence market was leaking like a sieve. This was partly because many unlicensed gambling companies were able to continue to accept Swedish gambling customers, as long as they avoided the Swedish language and the use of Swedish currency.
“The day before yesterday, we reminded the government of this in a letter, and now we are being listened to. It is very welcome.”
The Swedish gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, said it wants the government to move from a directional criterion on unlicensed companies to a “participant perspective.”
This, it said, “would mean that all online gambling that can take place in Sweden must have a Swedish gaming licence.”
Camilla Rosenberg, director general of Spelinspektionen, said: “The Swedish Gambling Authority views this announcement very positively. We have previously drawn the government's attention to the need for the Gambling Act's scope of application regarding online gambling to be changed.
“This is clear from our report on April 30, 2024, of the government's assignment to review how cooperation with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority can be strengthened to combat illegal gambling.
“The need to investigate the issue of the Gambling Act's scope of application is something that the Swedish National Audit Office and the Swedish State Treasury have also drawn attention to in their reports.”
Niels Munk Madsen, director of commercial performance at Betsson Group, said on LinkedIn that it is “hard to believe it has taken this long” to address what he called the “glaring loophole” in the “poorly designed legislation.”
“Since the Swedish gambling market was regulated six years ago, the Swedish Gambling Authority has focused heavily on penalising licensed operators, companies that chose to operate within the regulated market, paying Swedish gambling taxes while facing shifting interpretations of the rules with no predictability,” he said.
“Meanwhile, operators without a Swedish licence have been legally able to target Swedish players, paying nothing in local taxes, thanks to poorly designed regulation. For six years, this glaring loophole has remained wide open. At the same time, the SGA’s focus on handing out heavy fines to regulated operators has only pushed more players toward the unlicensed market, making the situation even worse.
“Now, six years later, the SGA is finally addressing the issue. It’s hard to believe it has taken this long to act on something so fundamental. Those who followed the rules have spent years at a disadvantage, this should have been fixed long ago.”
