The Swedish Gambling Authority Lotteriinspektionen has just published in full the new regulations which will go into force on 1st January 2019, and they certainly make for an interesting read. Key changes include the introduction of a new licensing system, the division of the market into three sectors covering competitive, charitable and state-owned gaming, taxes on gross gaming revenue of 18% (other than charitable gambling, which will remain exempt), and new protections against problem gambling.
Ardalan Shekarabi, Sweden’s Minister for Public Administration, is quoted in the Lotteriinspektionen’s bulletin as saying, “unregulated gambling has taken over and gambling is used in criminal activities… It is now time for us to move from words to action and regain control of the Swedish gambling market…” Sweden is so keen to be in a position to block and penalise unlicensed foreign operators that it is abandoning a slice of its long-held state monopoly on gambling and instituting a new license system.
Proposals in the bill detailed by the Authority include the strict “moderation in marketing” of gambling services, a requirement that the option for full self-exclusion for players is readily available, and a duty required of all operators to protect players from “excessive gambling”.
The Authority is also going all in on restricting unlicensed provision of play. Proposals are made for blocking payment systems between unlicensed operators and players “to ensure unlicensed operators are shut out of the market,” as well as for taxing players’ winnings if gained from unlicensed sites. The Authority is also proposing to require ISPs to display warning messages when a browser is pointed to an unlicensed operator’s website.
The bill also includes a new offence of gambling fraud and will create a “cooperation council” to oversee the prevention of match fixing in sports. The state-owned section of the market, as defined in the bill, refers principally to state-owned land-based casinos and physical token machines in operation.
This is a major development for Sweden, and it will be interesting to see which operators will be seen applying for the new licenses as competition inevitably ensues in the wake of the new announcements. International operators will be disappointed at the limitations imposed in the domestic market, and some may indeed aim to bypass it by working with different payment systems such as Bitcoin. It seems hard to see exactly how a domestic authority would control such operators, other than through the outlined tax penalties on players and ISP warnings.
