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Sweden’s Ministry of Finance has announced that it is assigning a government investigator to consider expanding the scope of the Gambling Act to stop unlicensed operators.
The decision comes directly after the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS) wrote to the government this week asking them to amend the Gambling Act. In the letter it said that a loophole has allowed unlicensed operators and suppliers to admit players from Sweden.
Now the ministry has acknowledged in a public statement that “unlicensed operators need to be able to be excluded in a more effective way than is possible with current regulation”.
The government investigator is tasked with developing “proposals to stop unlicensed operators on the Swedish gambling market. This could, for example, involve changing the so-called directional criterion that determines whether an online game requires a licence in Sweden.”
Prior to Swedish re-regulation in 2019, the Gambling Licence Investigation, which laid out the framework of what eventually became market-opening legislation, proposed outlawing operators without a licence who allowed players from Sweden.
The final text, however, only made catering to Swedish players by using the Swedish language and currency illegal.
In a statement, Gustaf Hoffstedt, the secretary general of BOS, wrote that he “welcomes the government's initiative, with the aim of criminalising unlicensed gambling companies that accept Swedish gambling consumers”.
The issue has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks because of the failed enforcement attempt against payments company Zimpler.
Last week, the Court of Appeals ruled against the Swedish Gambling Authority’s injunction and in favour of the payments platform.
The court found that Zimpler had provided its services to unlicensed operators in Sweden, but that the Gambling Act had not expressly made such an act illegal, specifically “regarding what is required from a gambling company to be considered to be aimed at Sweden”.
Hoffstedt told Vixio: “The problem does not lie with any individual payment provider, but with inadequate legislation. The so-called Scope of Application of the Gambling Act does not criminalise unlicensed gambling companies that passively accept Swedish consumers.
"As long as the gambling company avoids the Swedish language, Swedish-speaking customer service and the Swedish currency, the kronor, it is relatively risk-free to ignore applying for a Swedish gambling license and still accept Swedish gambling consumers.”
The state investigator will present their findings no later than September 17 of this year.
