Swedish government admits gambling legislation is “easy to circumvent” for unlicensed operators

A Swedish government investigation into unlicensed gambling has concluded that the country’s current gambling legislation is “difficult to apply and easy to circumvent”. Those are the words of Swedish Chamber of Commerce Director Gunnar Larsson, who in December 2020 was tasked with “identifying obstacles and proposing solutions” to improve channelisation to the licensed market. Larsson, who was also responsible for proposing more effective supervision of and enforcement against illegal operators as head of the government’s investigation, presented his findings in a press conference yesterday alongside Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi. Crucially, he has now proposed that Sweden’s gambling legislation be amended to include all gambling operators that can be accessed from Sweden, regardless of whether these companies actively target Swedish consumers. This could lead to enforcement action against international dotcom operators without a Swedish licence, who have opened their doors to Swedish consumers seeking to circumvent the country’s strict bonus and deposit restrictions for online casino – although it should be said that Larsson’s investigation applied specifically to online sports betting. Larsson has said the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) should actively try to stop payments to and from these unlicensed operators and will be granted tougher enforcement powers to target payment providers that continue to service players outside of the regulated environment. Licensed operators have long campaigned for payment providers and B2B suppliers to also be subject to licensing conditions to keep their services inside the regulated market. They have also suggested that the channelisation rate for online casino in Sweden could be as low as 70%, rising to around 87% for the overall market. While Larsson’s proposals stop short of a licensing regime, the SGA has been told to notify the Swedish Tax Agency of any injunctions or bans imposed on firms providing an “illegal” service to Swedish players. He said: “In practice, the SGA must inform gaming companies about which account numbers unlicensed players use. “If a payment service provider then continues to transfer payments, it should be considered unauthorised promotion, which can lead to a fine or imprisonment,” he added. Shekarabi commented: “We and the [licensed gambling] companies do not always have a common view, for example when it comes to gambling advertising, but on this issue we completely agree. “We must keep the unlicensed gaming companies away to stop unfair competition.”