Operator News

Sweden – Gaming revenues rise by five per cent in Sweden

Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s gaming regulator, has revealed that gaming revenues increased by five per cent over the last year reaching SEK26bn, despite the introduction of the online deposit cap and the continuing impact from the pandemic.

General Director Camilla Rosenberg said: “In the third year of the new gambling regulation, the Agency’s activities have continued to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite this, we have been working on our regular supervision and licensing, decided on sanctions and notification of amended technical regulations.We have also worked to take advantage of our experiences from the previous year’s licensing and supervision to develop new guideline documents on how to authority will work on these areas of work in the future. These experience has already led the Authority to take and published guidance on the work of licensees in two key areas of areas; on the one hand, the duty of care and the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism.

“During the year, the Authority continued to inform about the self-exclusion register Spelpaus.se. We have also prepared a major information initiative with the aim of raising public knowledge so that they make greater choice of gaming company with a Swedish license. We have also carried out new procurement of Spelpaus.se in order to ensure functionality and continued operation of the service. The number of people who have chosen to switch off from gambling on Spelpaus.se is increasing and more than 70,000 people at the end of the year.”

She added: “The broader approach of our supervision, with greater elements of dialogue with the industry than before, has characterized the past year. We have also started to improve efficiency of our internal licensing and supervisory procedures. When I look back on year, I look forward with confidence that the authority will also will manage their mission in a way that is both effective and at the same time increases clarity and understanding of regulation for the industry. Spelinspektionen’s mission is becoming increasingly important in a market with more licensees and a higher proportion of players, especially in the light of the many constitutional proposals regarding changes to the regulations that are under treatment. The proposals will have a major impact, among other things, on authority’s future work against match fixing and unlicensed gambling activities if they are carried out. In order to manage these new assignments and tasks, the Authority needs to grow further in order to maintain a consumer protection and continued confidence in regulation.”

The regulator processed 622 licence applications in 2021, allowing 287 applications and rejecting eight , taking the total number of active licences to 2,252.