If there is one thing that the Swedish love to do, it is gamble. This can be seen from the fact that the Swedish gambling market is the fifth largest in Europe. Many Swedes like to gamble, with 58.8% of the country’s gambling activity taking place online. This is the highest percentage in the whole of Europe, with Denmark coming in second with 54.6% and the United Kingdom coming in third with 45.3%. If you want to find out more about online gambling figures in Europe, pay a visit to EGBA.eu. Most Swedish casinos are based in Malta as it is seen as a tax haven for gaming companies. In the following article, we shall look at Swedish gambling laws and regulation.
The Swedish Gambling Authority
The Swedish Gambling Authority, known as Spelinspektionen, is Sweden’s gambling and lottery authority and they are responsible for ensuring that Sweden’s gambling industry is safe, reliable, and legal. As well as handing out lottery permits, they supervise and control lottery gambling and activities.
The Swedish Gambling Authority is controlled by the Ministry of Finance, while it is the Swedish government that appoints members to it. There are about 50 employees, and this includes experts in economics, legal, IT, and other relevant fields. The board is there to make crucial decisions on new gambling and lottery services and replies to reports, referrals, and guidelines.
The Swedish Gambling Authority is made up of three departments and these are as follows:
- Operational Department: This department deals with licensing and compliance of casino games, restaurant casinos, poker, amusement games, horse and dog racing, gaming machines, national lotteries, bingo, and Svenska Spel‘s Lotter games.
- Legal Affairs and Administrative Department: The people in this department are responsible for legal expertise, human resources, finances, and support functions like switchboard, reception, security, registry, IT, and archives.
- Communication Department: Those in this department are charged with dealing with external and internal business intelligence, communications, and marketing.
The authority has their own paid inspectors that work across Sweden. During lottery draws, there will always be at least one inspector present to ensure that everything remains accurate and fair. Their inspectors also pay visits to different gambling establishments to ensure that they are complying with all the rules and regulations and that no illegal activities are taking place.
Below we have listed the main tasks that are performed by the Swedish Gambling Authority:
- Licenses national lotter games, gaming machines, restaurant casinos, and bingo games.
- Supervises gaming and lottery operations to make sure that the regulations are being kept to.
- Provides information regarding gambling and lottery legislation.
- Grants approval to lottery tickets, lottery game drawing, and surveillance equipment.
- Keeps the Swedish government up to date on the newest developments in offshore and Swedish gambling markets.
Latest Gambling Laws in Sweden
Svenska Spel, a state-owned gambling company, used to be the only ones that were permitted to offer gambling to the people of Sweden, but this all changed at the beginning of 2019. The government brought in new gambling regulations that welcome private operators of online betting sites, which includes online casino companies from outside of Sweden.
Even though Svenska Spel had the monopoly on gambling in Sweden, there were plenty of private operators that found ways to dodge that regulation and get a piece of Sweden’s $2.5 billion online gambling industry. The government soon realized that they could not do much to stop this from happening, so they decided to amend the gambling laws. These new laws permit the Swedish Gambling Authority to give licenses to private betting companies. To date, they have granted online gambling licenses to over 100 operators, meaning that there are now plenty of online casinos out there that are able to accept players from Sweden.
The vast variety of online casinos now available to Swedish casino players can be seen at svenskaonlinecasino.info [valid where legal]. The site has a team of experts that use their gambling knowledge and experience to help their Swedish readers find the best online casino for them. Additionally, they have plenty of valuable information about the popular games that you will find at all online casinos that are worth their salt. Online casino players in Sweden, thanks to the new regulations and laws, now have more opportunity to land the big jackpot wins and enjoy some of the best slot games from the gambling world’s leading software developers.
Below we have listed some of the major changes that are now in place thanks to the new laws:
- Operators must pay 18% taxes on their gaming revenue.
- Any non-profit gambling activities are not taxable.
- Swedish gamblers are only allowed to claim one Welcome Bonus at online casinos that are licensed in Sweden.
- There are now six different gambling licenses.
- License fees range from SEK400-700.
- Players have the option of freezing their online casino account whenever they like.
- All slots are required to have a 3-second delay between the spins.
- Players have to use the same payment options for making deposits and withdrawals.
It is clear to see that these new laws have benefited players, operators, and the government. Swedish players now have plenty of regulated online casinos that they can sign up with, while the government will make more money thanks to increased taxes. This additional money can then be used to improve the country’s infrastructure and health system, for example. These new laws also protect Swedish players from unregulated and unlicensed online gambling companies as the Swedish Gambling Authority has the power to block the promotion of unlicensed gambling sites as well as transactions between Swedish player and unlicensed operators. This means that Swedish gamblers are now less likely to fall foul of online scammers.
There is also a stronger focus on responsible gambling thanks to the new laws. The Swedish Gambling Authority now have the power to make sure that online casino operators implement a variety of responsible gambling features. For example, all online casinos that are licensed within Sweden must give their customers the option of asking for a self-exclusion period if they believe that they are no longer in control of their gambling. Other responsible gambling measures included deposit limits as well as providing numbers for professionals that Swedish gamblers can call if they feel that their gambling has got out of hand.
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