Lotteriinspektionen, the Swedish Gaming Regulatory Body, Receives 55 Gambling License Applications

The Swedish gaming regulatory body Lotteriinspektionen recently announced to have received more than 55 applications for an online gambling license. Lotteriinspektionen has started preparing for the new gambling legislation since January 2018 and has published the information regarding the dates for submitting applications and the launch of the new regime. The new gambling rules will take effect from January 1, 2019.

The regulatory body additionally informed all applicants to complete the applications more carefully, because they have received some incomplete applications, which puts the operators at risk of not receiving a license due to not filling in the blanks soon enough.

The Proposed Gambling Act

Lotteriinspektionen has published the Proposed Gambling Act two months ago. The Act gives an overall summary of the new legislation and addresses the requirements on gambling operators. Essentially, only the applicants that provide secure and publically appropriate products and services will be granted a license, operators who provide the highest level of customer protection. The operators should monitor and examine players’ behavior, report addiction signs and offer their help. They should put the players’ protection first, so they should allow players to exclude themselves from the gambling site whenever players think fits.

In addition, they should have years of experience in the field, have a good organizational plan and be fit to be running gambling operations. The gambling advertisement should be moderate and should prevent the negative impacts of gambling. More precisely, the Lotteriinspektionen forbids targeting people who have gambling problems or young people under the age of 18. In fact, the operators should not allow Swedish players under the age of 18 get access to the site.

When it comes to the taxation rate, the proposed tax is 18% of operators’ revenue. Any operator that does not abide by the rules written in the Act will receive pecuniary penalties and punishments of a minimum of SEK 5,000 ($550) to a maximum of 10% of their turnover in the following year.

The Need for Clarification

The Proposed Gambling Act is a subject to criticism, as it does not clearly approach the advertising limitations. There is a concern about the term “moderate advertising” in the Proposed Act. Operators have started comparing the Swedish gambling market’s situation with past experiences of other European countries that underwent changes in legislation. The LeoVegas’ VP, Louise Nylen, has expressed a concern following Italy’s blank ban on gambling advertising. The operators do not want to be caught unprepared for rigorous restrictions in regards to gambling advertising.

Although these complaints have reached the Lotteriinspektionen, its Director General, Camilla Rosenberg noted that there are still no concrete answers to those questions, as the Lotteriinspektionen is focused on processing the applications. She reminded operators that the period between the approval of the Proposed Gambling Act and the forthcoming launch of the new gambling market was extremely short, and asks for patience since the decision about which operator gets the license is of paramount importance. Nevertheless, she promises to provide further notice as soon as possible.