#Gustaf Hoffstedt

A report by consultancy Skopm commissioned by regulator Spelinspektionen included a survey of 1,600 adults in Sweden about their gambling habits in 2021. 53% of past-year gamblers believe that there are advantages to playing with licensed sites, whereas only 2% deliberately and knowingly played with an unlicensed site. 31% listed an operator being licensed as among the most important reasons to choose an operators. Just 10% knew how to identify whether an Operator is licensed.

The Prague Gaming Summit was held last week. It was attended by the major stakeholders of the gaming and gambling industry of CEE region. The participants had the opportunity to dive into licensing and business-related information from the Czech and Polish markets. The conference also included a keynote presentation about Live Games. There was also a fire-side chat with the latest updates about Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. They also had a discussion about the vital role of Fintech in the industry. This session was hosted by Simon Planzer. He is an AML expert at Sentinels.

The Moderaterna Party in Sweden has submitted its provisional mandate to the highest-decision-making assembly in the country. The party wants to overhaul the gambling industry in Swedish. It wants Svenska Spel, the current state-owned gambling operator, to be split into two entities.

Swedish government decided against implementing COVID-19-based restrictions on online casinos.

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 Swedish Government has decided to waive Covid-19 restrictions placed upon online casinos operating across the country. The restrictions were designed to limit players’ weekly deposits to a maximum of SEK 5,000 ($534) and any bonuses offered by online casino had to be capped at SEk 100. BOS, the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling, welcomed the decision. The European Casino Association conducted a survey of its land-based members to understand how the pandemic has affected operations across Europe.

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.

Sweden is bringing back online gambling restrictions. Restrictions were introduced during the first wave of COVID-19. The country asserts that the measures are needed to combat a rise in online gaming during this pandemic.

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.

BOS urges Sweden to lift deposit cap with other Covid-19 rules in September. The restrictions were due to be eased on 14 November, but the government announced on 7 September that most of the general restrictions will be removed from 29 September this year. BOS secretary general Gustaf Hoffstedt notes that Casino Cosmopol, a state-owned land-based casino, reopened on July 7 without the restrictions.

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

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.

Amendments to the gambling act call for "special moderation" in ads. Online operator association BOS has rejected the new proposals. Regulator Spelinspektionen previously praised the proposal. The association has previously objected to parts of the Gambling Market Inquiry and a proposed extension of a deposit cap for gaming. It also has criticized the low investments in marketing. They are concerned about the high proportion of unlicensed gaming in the market. A fourth of all gambling krona leaks out of licensing system when it comes to online casinos.

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.