Gambling in Sweden

Gambling in Sweden is very popular and legal. The market is controlled by a state monopoly Svenska Spel which issues licenses and enforces the law.

Who regulates gambling in Sweden?

Swedish gambling market is represented by 4 land-based casinos in the country called Cosmopol Sundsvall, Cosmopol Stockholm, Cosmopol Gothenburg and Cosmopol Malmö. These are large land-based casino which can be attended by visitors over 20 years old. This area of business is supervised by the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate.

There are several organizations that control the country's gaming industry: the Swedish Gambling Authority, the Financial Inspectorate, the Swedish Consumer Agency and the Health Agency.

In Sweden, only official and licensed casinos can be advertised.

In 2018, the gambling market brought the state a total gross revenue of 23.4 billion kroons. The total gross revenue amounted to 24.8 billion kroons in 2019, and 2.03 billion kroons were earned from online gambling.

On August 1, 2017, the law on money laundering came into force in Sweden. Under this law, the gambling industry is subject to legislation to prevent the use of this business for money laundering and terrorist financing.

On January 1, 2019, Sweden passed new laws that limited the monopoly of the state-owned company, opening the market to private operators. This reform aimed to strike a balance between freedom of choice for players and the protection of their rights. This has actually created a regulated online gaming market in the country. In February 2021, the 100th license was issued to Mr Vegas.

How the pandemic has affected gambling in Sweden

Anyone who wants to provide gambling services in the Swedish market or just wants to play there should be aware of the local restrictions, licensing aspects and development prospects.

In 2020, the country's gaming industry was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, all 4 land-based casinos in the country were closed on March 29. Quarantine also closed major world sport events, affecting significantly the profits of the state-owned Svenska Spel. On July 2, 2020, the Swedish government introduced a temporary (at the time of the pandemic) restriction on deposits and bonuses, as a result of which the profits of most Swedish casinos decreased by 30%. The limits are 5 thousand kroons per deposit (~ 490 euros) and 100 kroons for bonuses. Players were also required to set a time limit on slot machines or online casinos. The restriction was subsequently extended until June 2021.

In 2020, net revenue from online games and slots in April-June fell by 19% to 1.64 billion kroons, and results for 12 months amounted to 3.69 billion kroons, which is 10% less than in the same period of 2018 – 2019. In the second quarter, revenue from the gambling business fell by 4.1% to 5.94 billion kroons (571.3 million euros), the lowest result since its launch in January 2019. Due to quarantine and new laws in force since the beginning of 2019, some analysts consider the gambling market in Sweden unprofitable, which encourages operators to abandon licenses and look for new markets to work in other countries.

In September 2020, the Swedish state-owned company Svenska Spel, along with its French partner Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU), launched the possibility of betting on international online racing competitions. Since 2020, the Gambling Association of the Netherlands (NOGA) has been cooperating with the Swedish Gambling Association (BOS) which regulates the casino sector. Both associations jointly develop rules for regulating the gambling market.

At the end of 2020, the Swedish government published a report on the experiments gambling market. This study was launched in 2018 by former Minister of Civil Affairs Ardalan Shekarabi to prepare Swedish online gambling market for the launching in 2019. According to the results and numerous complaints about aggressive television advertising of casinos, the study recommended the government to ban this type of advertising from 6 am to 9 pm.

If you would like to learn more about no local licance Swedish casinos, go to casinoutanspelpaus.io.

Conclusion

Gambling is a fairly popular pastime among the population of Sweden. According to surveys in 2020, 66% of the population played in casinos at least once a year, in 2019 this number was 60%. 30% of gamblers participate in gambling every week. However, 95% of players do not know how to check whether an online casino has a Swedish license. The Swedish organization Gambling Market suggested the Minister of Social Security to take a number of measures to restrict the market, including ban of casino advertising during the day, ban of movies where the heroes gamble or play any table games for real money. The Minister also stated that starting from 2021 the country would introduce a new system for self-exclusion of players and control over the operation of online casinos. It should allow you to block sites that don’t have a Swedish license.