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Summary
- Sweden considers amending 2018 Swedish Gambling Act
- Amendment to provide Spelinspektionen more powers
- Regulatory changes are required to stop illegal iGaming sites
Sweden has strict gaming regulations in place to protect its players from gambling harm and ensure that all licensed gaming operators comply with gaming laws in the country. However, a large number of illegal iGaming sites continue to flourish in the country and do brisk business with players in Sweden.
One of the reasons that illegal iGaming sites have been able to cater successfully to Swedish players is because Spelinspektionen, which is the gaming regulator in the country has not had sufficient powers to block these unlicensed iGaming sites.
With the licensed iGaming industry growing in Switzerland, there has been fresh calls from different parties to amend the 2018 Swedish Gambling Act which is restricting Spelinspektionen from performing its duties effectively. Sweden’s Law Council (Lagrådet) has submitted a proposal outlining what steps the government needs to take to better protect Swedish players from gambling harm.
Sweden’s Law Council has asked the government to make changes to the 2018 Swedish Gambling Act based on their proposal and call for change. They want these changes to be rolled out by the end of 1 July, 2023 latest. The main focus in the legal notice sent to the Ministry of Finance called for changes to be made to Section 26 of the Gaming Act.
Spelinspektionen Must Be Able To Authorize Payment Blocks
Payment providers in Sweden are currently processing banking transactions from illegal gaming sites which allows both Swedish players and illegal gaming sites to operate freely in the country.
Spelinspektionen wants payment service providers to stop processing transactions originating from illegal gaming sites. The gaming regulator currently has the authority to enforce payment service providers from doing this based on the existing Payment Services Act but it does involve a complicated legal process which involves the Administrative Court and a lot of red tape.
Sweden’s Law Council wants Spelinspektionen to have the freedom and authority to skip the red tape and issue a payment block to payment service providers thereby immediately stopping the illegal activities for unlicensed sites. If Lagrådet gets its legal advice approved, then Spelinspektionen will be able to launch an investigation into any payment service provider that does not follow its block payment advice and continues to process payments from illegal gaming sites.
