Sweden: Siltanews – News Desk
Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), the Sweden Online Gambling Trade Association, has called on the Ministry of Finance to amend loopholes in the Gambling Act 2018.
The trade body believes that Swedish online gambling is currently exposed to a massive influx of unlicensed gambling offers targeting national consumers.
Liabilities are facilitated by the Gambling Act only applying to licences that conduct gambling by offering Swedish language and transactions in Swedish Krona.
The legislation ignores the fact that Swedish consumers can easily choose to play on unlicensed alternatives offering the euro (€) (or others), with no Swedish content – a condition that avoids regulatory scrutiny.
As cited by BOS: “The decisive factor is whether the gaming site has text in Swedish or offers deposits and winnings in Swedish currency and that this must be determined by an overall assessment on a case-by-case basis.”
As such, BOS argues that the Gambling Act contains fundamental errors in Chapters 18 and 19, which provide loopholes that allow unlicensed gambling operators and service providers to continue facilitating gambling for Swedish consumers despite the law’s regulatory intent.
Payment block orders in Chapter 18 (Section 26) allow authorities to proceed with blocking payment transactions only if the website is explicitly targeting Swedish consumers through the use of Swedish language or SEK currency.
The laws in Chapter 19, concerning criminal liabilities and the prevention of illegal gambling, are deemed ineffective, as enforcement can only be applied when an operator is deemed to be actively targeting Swedish consumers through the use of language or currency.
Both Chapters fail to address the fact that unlicensed operators can still be promoted via advertising platforms and affiliates without breaking the law, as long as the site itself doesn’t explicitly target Sweden.
Loopholes are further exposed as payment service providers (PSPs) can legally process transactions to unlicensed gambling sites if these websites do not explicitly cater to Swedish players.
The deficiency arises from the Government narrowing the scope of the Gambling Act compared to the original Gambling License Investigation’s proposal. Initially, the investigation aimed to criminalize all unlicensed gambling companies accepting Swedish players.