Swedish gambling bill approved and heading for Parliament next week

[The Buzz]

The Swedish gambling bill that will reform the market and allow online operators to apply for a license for the first time was approved by the government on Thursday. The bill is now planned to be submitted to parliament next Tuesday, April 10, according to the government with the final vote expected in June.

According to Nordic Gaming:

The Minister for Public Administration, Ardalan Shekarabi, on Thursday confirmed that the gambling market will be divided up into three sectors: a competitive sector, mainly online gambling and betting; a non-profit sector for lotteries and bingo; and a sector that will remain under state-control, including land-based casinos and slot machines.

Other provisions that were confirmed were:

• The tax for online gambling will be 18 percent of gross gaming revenue
• Operators will only be allowed to offer its customers a welcome bonus
• There will be a possibility to block payment transactions between gamblers and unlicensed gambling operators
• Internet service providers must set up warning messages for websites offering unlicensed gambling
• A national self-exclusion register will be introduced
• Promoting unlicensed gambling operators will be illegal
• Marketing must be moderate
• Licensed operators will have a duty to protect customers from excessive gambling
• Gambling websites must have a panic button for customers to quickly take a break from gambling
• Customers must set time and spending limits
• Match-fixing will become a crime with the maximum sentence being six years in prison

Shekarabi also confirmed that the law is expected to enter into force on January 1, 2019.

[Vargoso]

Ok so kind a bad news for websites promoting like offshore or international sites:

• There will be a possibility to block payment transactions between gamblers and unlicensed gambling operators
• Internet service providers must set up warning messages for websites offering unlicensed gambling
• Promoting unlicensed gambling operators will be illegal

And how about this tax? According to your countries, it is normal?

• The tax for online gambling will be 18 percent of gross gaming revenue

Maybe any information about player's pool? Must be closed I think but not sure. Thanks for sharing

[The Buzz]

Update from Nordic Gambling today:

On Monday the Swedish government published the draft law on gambling in full and announced the timeline for the bill’s passage through parliament.

The bill has now been officially submitted in parliament and will be reviewed by the Committee on Cultural Affairs before a vote in plenary.

The bill is scheduled for review in the committee on May 15, followed by a debate and a vote on June 7 on which the bill will be adopted if approved by the parliament. The law is planned to enter into force on January 1, 2019 but the licensing window is set to open August 1, 2018.

No major changes have been made to the text compared with the explanatory notes to the law proposal published in January that we wrote about earlier this year.

However, one noticeable difference is an added paragraph on the ownership of the part of state-owned Svenska Spel that will be allowed to compete with private operators.

In the bill, the government now states that it is currently not necessary to sell-off the competitive part of Svenska Spel but that a review should take place to evaluate how the company is adapting to the new market. This review process is also included in the draft law.

Private operators have called for a privatisation of the part of Svenska Spel that will compete with other licensees on the online market to ensure that the government is not the regulator and and operator at the same time and that the company does not use the same customer base and marketing budget as the remaining monopoly part.

However, the ownership of horserace betting operator ATG still needs to be evaluated further, according to the government.

The regulator is still to publish new and amended regulation to accompany the law.

[ocreditor]

Actually 18% tax is not that much compered to countries like Austria where it's 35%.

Still time until January to allocate Swedish licensed brands in order to avoid the warnings message