#Ardalan Shekarabi

The Swedish government submitted a report to Sweden’s Law Council with proposals to exclude illegal players from the Swedish gambling market and counteract the manipulation of results in sports. The new measures should be introduced in Swedish law before 1 July 2023.

The government of Sweden has introduced new legislation that could require iGaming business-to-business software suppliers to be licensed. Sweden already has a large number of commercial land-based and online casino and sportsbetting services.

The government wants to control online gambling in Sweden. The weekly deposit limit at online casinos was increased to SEK 5,000 from June 2020 to November 2021. Now, it will be SEk 4,00 from 7th February 2022 to 30th June 2022. Online casinos will still need to limit their welcome bonuses to 100 SE k, physical slot machines will have a new loss limit of SE K 4.000. Players will also have to set daily, weekly, and monthly limits. Operators will need 96 hours to contact players when they set higher limits to prevent loopholes.

Kindred Group has written a written response to the Swedish government's proposal for temporary restrictions on licensed online gambling due to pandemic. Kindred believes the government’s response has been pragmatic and enabled the society to be as open as possible. The company thinks the restrictions are ill-founded and do not meet the criteria of evidence-based policymaking. The simplest solution would be to impose the same restrictions as before. It is also concerned that the measures make it more difficult for licensed gambling companies to fulfil their duty of care and have a negative impact on channelling.

The Swedish Ministry of Finance launched a consultation on a new measure to limit weekly online casino deposits to SEK4,000 ($440.49) from SEk1,00 ($110.39) as the previous limit was lifted in November.

BOS calls on Swedish Government to rethink deposit limit change. BOS has been critical of Minister Ardalan Shekarabi in the past. In June 2021, the Trade Association lambasted the Minister’s “unfounded” claim that there was an increase in online gambling during the pandemic. The Trade association claims the new limit will encourage players to create accounts with more operators, making it harder to monitor their behaviour.

The Swedish Gambling Inspectorate has released gambling revenue numbers for the industry in Q3 2021. The current net sales are up about 5% over the same third-quarter period ending September 30 last year. Online sector leads the increase with SEK 3.9B in net earnings.

Sweden will end its temporary restrictions on online casinos from 14 November. The temporary measures were introduced as a protective measure for Swedish citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Licensed operators had to impose a mandatory SEK 5,000 weekly deposit limit on player accounts and a customer bonus of SEk100. Trade association Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) had been critical of the temporary deposit caps.

Sweden's national gambling regulator has imposed IP bans on 23 Curacao-based operators.

The current restrictions on online gambling in Sweden will come to an end on November 14.

The Swedish government has announced an end to the nation’s temporary pandemic online gambling restrictions starting November 14.

Sweden's gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, will review the online gambling market. Restrictions on online betting will be lifted on November 14, 2021.

The Ministry of Finance in Sweden introduced a proposal for stricter regulation of gambling ads earlier this year. Spelinspektionen, the Swedish gambling regulator, is generally positive about the proposal. The proposal is to introduce a special requirement for advertising and marketing gambling products. It is similar to the regulations for alcohol ads in the country. There is still time for responses for the proposed regulation to be collected by October 14, 2021. The new rule may come into effect on July 1, 2022. Back in June, Ardalan Shekarabi deemed gambling addiction as a “public health problem”

Swedish gambling trade body wants the government to lift online casino restrictions on the same date as the lifting of COVID-19 measures.

Sweden has had a hectic year in the political world. The prime minister quit and was re-elected, but he might resign again if he can't pass the budget in autumn. Ardalan Shekarabi, the minister for Consumer Affairs, has been criticized for his work to regulate the gambling industry. The government has interests in Svenska Spel and ATG. Sven'ska spel is fully owned and controlled by the government, and the other one is partially owned.

Pandemic Restrictions on Swedish Online Casinos Could Be Extended. The restrictions are spearheaded by the country’s Minister of Social Insurance Ardalan Shekarabi. The current Covid-19 situation “entails great risk for consumers in the gaming market” and the government needs to act to reduce the risks for the most vulnerable consumers.

The Constitutional Committee of the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, rejects the Minister Ardalan Shekarabi's claim that gambling at online casinos would have increased during the covid-19 pandemic.

The temporary online casino deposit limit of SEK5,000 per week will not be lifted at the end of June as previously planned. The deposit will remain in force until November 14. The mandatory requirement for players to set limits on playing time will also not change.

LeoVegas launches LiveCasino.com on its proprietary platform. It's the second new brand to launch on the platform after GoGo Casino. LeoV Vegas is the number one online casino operator in Sweden. Per Norman will be the company's next chairman. Robin Ramm-Ericson will not be re-elected to the board. The company will hold its annual general meeting on Friday. The nomination committee has proposed four new directors as new candidates. They are Hélène Westholm, Mathias Hallberg, Carl Larsson and Torsten Söderberg.

Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) online gambling industry group slammed the Swedish government's proposal for strict limits on online casino deposits and losses. BOS secretary-general Gusaf Hoffstedt said the government has failed to balance the licensing system that attracts consumers and offers strong consumer protection. The government aimed to ‘channel’ at least 90% of the country's online gamblers to locally licensed sites. The current channeling rate is as low as 72-78%.

Sweden's government approved new deposit and bonus limits for online casinos. The new rules take effect on July 2 and will extend through the end of 2020. Online casino bonus offers will be capped at SEK100 and customers must set limits on time spent gambling. Public Health Authority has been tasked with conducting a study into problem gambling, which must be completed by February 28, 2021. . .. It is to obtain “in-depth knowledge of how problem gaming is affected” by COVID-19.