Swedish Parliament Approves More Liberalised Online Gambling Legislation (Update)

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Jun 15, 2018

Reform bill approved by 282 votes vs. 19 against

The Swedish gambling reform bill that will open up the online market in the Nordic nation was approved Thursday in parliament on a vote of 282 vs. 19 against.

The bill will introduce a licensing system for online gambling with a tax rate of 18 percent of gross gambling revenue, and comes into force on January 1 next year, with licensing applications accepted from August 1 2018.

The new law also introduces a central register for responsible gaming that allows customers to exclude themselves from all licensed gaming operators in the Swedish market.

Operators will have to pay SEK 400,000 (Euro 38,900) for a licence, and for companies that plan on offering both online gambling and betting, the licence fee will rise to SEK 700,000.

Secondary legislation is still being scrutinised by the European Commission and additional rules and regulation are still expected from the Swedish Gambling Authority.

Brian Cullingworth

Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.

We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.

His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.


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