Sweden has submitted a bill to the European Commission for consideration, in which they would liberalize their online gambling regulations.
Currently, the Swedish online poker market is dominated by Svenska Spel – the only licenced operator in the country. However, there are several operators, who kept on offering service from offshore, which goes against the laws, but the state has no real chance to regulate them.
That’s what the new rule would change. An 18% gaming duty on licensed operators would be introduced – which is considered reasonable in the industry. The Government wants to see regulators open up applications for licensing by July 2018, and the new law come into effect by the beginning of 2019.
“The central government will regain control of the Swedish gambling market,” said Ardalan Shekarabi, Minister for Public Administration. “We are now proposing legislation entailing that operators receiving a license to conduct activities targeting Swedish consumers must comply with Swedish rules. This will also give us the tools to keep those without a license out.” – he added.
Sweden has been working on the process for a long time now, but they seem to meet the deadlines. Given, that bureaucracy is infamous for its snail’s pace the Scandinavians do pretty well for themselves.
Let’s hope we can battle against them once again in the near future. This step is certainly a great leap forward and fits very well the last few regulation-related news. It looks like the globally-regulated online poker sites are not as impossible as we once thought.
