Sweden meeting between regulator and operators - five key takeaways
Tuesday's meeting in Stockholm was the first chance for operators to peer under the hood of the Swedish Gambling Authority- What did we learn?
On Tuesday, the Swedish Gambling Authority met with representatives from every Swedish licensed operator in the World Trade Center in Stockholm. The objective of the meeting was to give operators a forum to discuss regulation with the SGA and to give the SGA the chance to outline its approach.
Here’s the key points raised:
Limited licence
In its presentation, the SGA said it had denied two licence applications by operators, for a lack of “knowledge, experience and organization, both internally and through subcontractors”.
The SGA said that it has previously reduced licence terms to one or two years from a maximum five years due to the perceived violation of gaming regulations by firms in other countries. It also said decisions to limit licences were also made on five firms due to concerns regarding the financial position capital strength issues of the operators concerned.
Channelisation confusion?
In its presentation the SGA claimed a channelization rate to licensed operators of over 90%, which would if proven to be accurate make it amongst the leading markets in the world for regulated operations. However, Hero gaming operational CEO Thomas Backman said at Betting on Sports this week channelization might be as low as 60-65% on some verticals.
The SGA has said it deems operators to be offering egaming in Sweden if payments can be made in Swedish currency or if the site features Swedish as a language choice. In addition, if the operator offers Swedish customer service or targets any facet of its marketing towards Swedish consumers, it is deemed to be offering egaming in Sweden.
Source: Swedish Gambling Authority
This is reminiscent of the so-called Dutch prioritization criteria, utilizing many of the same checks, but perceptibly with a far lower sanction rate against online operators. To date there have been no published sanctions against any operator for offering egaming in Sweden without a licence.
Cases, cases, cases
Following the regulation of egaming in January, the SGA began a recruitment drive, seeking to deal with the new influx of regulatory cases. To date, an additional 10 individuals have been recruited including two operational department heads, one anti-money laundering officer, one supervision officer and five lawyers.
The SGA’s current docket of cases currently looks like this:
However, based on the evidence of the last six months, this number could well increase in the future.
In addition, the high number of lawyers being recruited could be a marker for an increase in potential appeals by operators against the SGA’s regulatory decisions.
Betting tax windfall for the Swedish government
Many Swedish-facing operators who were active before reregulation have reported a big impact from the 18% Swedish gambling tax on their respective revenues, with more than SEK 2bn paid.
Spelpaus
Taxes received by the Swedish authorities dipped slightly during the so-called quieter months of June and July but have remained at a consistent level in the first part of 2019.
The SGA revealed a high proportion of individuals choosing to self-exclude via the Spelpaus national self-exclusion scheme are choosing to do so for an indefinite period. Men account for the bulk of individuals choosing to self-exclude, but the number of women utilising the Spelpaus service is growing and could hit over 10,000 individuals by the end of 2019.