10 Operators Ordered to Leave the Swedish Market

The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate (Spelinspektionen) and state regulator has issued a report in which it is revealed that as much as ten gambling operators that target Swedish players without a license have been ordered to cease and desist their operations.

These will have to withdraw all of their 45 brands from the regulated Swedish market.

The Procedure For Dealing With Unlicensed Operators

Spelinspektionen has identified numerous offences and breaches of laws by these ten operators, such as offering products in Swedish language and payments in Swedish kroners and marketing for local Swedish players directly and through their partnerships.

Six of these ten businesses are licensed by Curacao, while two apiece are ed in Malta and Cyprus.

Since December 2019, Spelinspektionen has ordered 21 operators in total to stop targeting players. 1xbet was the operator of the highest profile that was ordered to do so.

It was also in December last year that the regulator unveiled the strategy for tackling unlicensed activity. According to it, the order to leave the market is the first step in the enforcement process.

The operators that fail to comply will be fined and even if that doesn’t stop them from targeting players illegally, the police takes matters into their own hands.

The Cap Issue

Another thing the Swedish operator can do is applying for court injunctions in order to block payment providers from processing transactions for these sites.

Licensed operators have warned that the recently approved restrictions by the Swedish government will benefit unlicensed operators.

Namely, the weekly deposit cap of SEK5,000 and bonus cap of SEK100 have been imposed by the Government of Sweden and will go in effect from July 2nd and will last until the end of the year. Its aim is to protect players that are home-bound during the global health crisis.

Licensees claim, however, that this will encourage them to gamble with unlicensed providers where these limits do not exist.

Source:

“Spelinspektionen orders 10 to withdraw from Swedish market”, igamingbusiness.com, June 11 2020