Gambling License in Sweden

A new Act on gambling was enacted by the Swedish government on first January year 2019. The acts stand as a representation of the ultimate change of legislative structure in Sweden on betting and gambling, gambling license. Before then, there existed 2 monopolies. They were AB Trav and Svenska’ Spel, Galop (ATG), and some other non- profit making organizations were given the mandate to run the gambling services. Currently, private gambling operators can comfortably apply for gambling license in order to provide online commercial’ betting or gambling to Swedish consumers.

The foundation of gambling legislation in Sweden and gambling license

Through following the law, Sweden was running a monopoly system before the year 2019, although the market was too much congested by several international ‘ brands and operators that aimed at the Swedish’ online market from abroad. Following the statistics by the Authority of gambling, at least SEK’ 6.7 million of the total turnover’ of the SEK 23.4′ million was made in the gambling market of Swedish in the year 2018. This was generated out of the operations that were made without imposing the Swedish license.

The legislative amendments were delayed, although with the new law was implemented after some time which was of high importance. And due to the presentation of public’ investigation regarding the re- regulation which was published being on March’ 2017, they were presided by the public consultation and the obligatory reminder to the European’ Commission. The Act for Gambling was passed by the parliament on 14th June’ in the year 2008. The gambling authority and the Swedish government didn’t get an opportunity to provide the secondary legislation since the window for the application of license was opened being on 1st August 2018.

The overview of gambling act

As of January, the year 2019, there were six varied types of licenses that were provided. They included betting and gambling. These two licenses can be granted to any operator including the private’ gambling, who have successfully satisfied formal requirements. Some of the main legislation features include;

• The products which are contained in the competitive market sector include online casino, online bingo, online poker and the land-based and online betting.
• A license on betting should completely cover any kind of betting including horse races, sports, the electronic stimulated events and results of the lotteries.
• The license should last for utmost five years.
• Bonuses are also offered for the first time a player is capable of using the product of the operator.
• The tax is set at 18% of the total gaming’ revenue.
• A proposal that necessitates software providers to effect gambling license application was scrapped from the final version’ of the law and the operators B2B’ do not require any license.
• It’s obligatory for the players to have a set limit of deposit. This may be done on a daily, monthly and weekly basis.
• The holders of the licenses are expected to take appropriate measures in order to prevent and at the same time decrease gambling challenges by all means. The players will be given an opportunity to exclude themselves from gambling under all licensed’ operators’ by registering on the National’ Self- Exclusion Registry.
• Provisions regarding the advertisement are included on the law and they also contain the rules and moderations that do not specifically target children who are below the age of 18 years.
• Providers of payments are authorized by the court to block’ any type of payments to the gambling operators who are not licensed on gambling Authority instruction.
• Fixing of the matches is not allowed. It is a punishable offense where the accused can be slammed with 2′ or 6 years of imprisonment.
• The Gambling Authority can ask from the ISP’ provider to show a warning message to enable the players to know that the website is not allowed in Sweden.
• The Horse races’ ATG betting is allowed to get into the competitive’ market and where it secures the licenses in order to operate the online casino and betting. The company is put under state regulation to make sure there is a progression of horse racing funding.
• There are no provisions provided on ‘return-to-players’ (RTP), placing of bets on lower leagues or regulation on in-play’ betting.
• Betting in a situation whereby most of the participants are below 18 years, or betting on inappropriate or offensive events is not allowed by the law.