The year is 2018 and many casinos with a lot of Swedish players are nervous. On January 1, 2019, the new rules and conditions decided by the Swedish Gambling Authority and the Swedish government for online casinos began to apply, in order to continue accepting Swedish players.
The gaming regulation meant a big difference for the casino industry, and also the birth of a new form of casino site, namely casinos without a Swedish license. This new phenomenon has changed the landscape of the Swedish gaming market considerably.
What changed for Casinos with the Gambling Regulation?
During the introduction, not much was changed, mainly welcome tools, but it is still quite unclear for the casinos what actually applies and how they must, according to the law, conduct their business.
A requirement set by the Swedish Gaming Authority was also that players had to set a deposit and time limit for their gambling.Nevertheless, Swedes do not attach much importance to the license and play in casinos with a foreign license. The best gamblers are presented on the site braspelsajter.net.
They were also only allowed to hand out one bonus per player. This did not previously apply to Casinos without a Swedish license ; this instead became news for Swedish players and Swedish casinos.
Spelpaus makes inroads into the gaming market
Something very welcome was the function Spelpaus.se . Spelpaus works so that you can disconnect yourself from all Swedish-licensed casinos using your social security number. When a player shuts himself down, they cannot play at a casino that has a Swedish license.
Duty of care and tax revenue to the state
Another news for the casinos with a Swedish license was that they must follow a duty of care towards their players. This was much discussed at the beginning of 2019. There was a lot of confusion about exactly what the duty of care was and the Gambling Inspectorate did not want to answer questions, it was more "do what you want and then we will decide if it is right or not". This obviously meant a concern for the casino sites.
Swedish licensed casinos must pay 18% tax to the Swedish government, which is calculated every month and the sum is based on net profit. Previously, it was Malta that had to share in the Swedes' wasted money in the form of tax revenue.
After the gambling regulation, the Swedish treasury finally gets a share of the cake and during 2019 a total of SEK 24.8 billion was turned over. This means a large sum of money for Sweden's treasury.
Casinos without a Swedish license are starting to take market share
Something that many did not realize at the beginning of the gambling regulation was that sites could continue to offer Swedes online gambling without a Swedish license. There are many casinos with both licenses from Malta and Curacao that jump on the bandwagon to offer games for Swedes and it becomes very popular very quickly.
Reasons why people play at casinos without a Swedish license
It may seem strange that people choose to play at unlicensed casinos without any license.
In Sweden, state-owned Svenska Spel has started to offer slots and live casino, and finally the Swedish Gaming Authority believed that the provision of the game, and above all the tax money, would stay within our elongated country.
So why do people play at casinos without a Swedish license? Well, there are actually several reasons for this phenomenon, we address the two biggest reasons below.
Casinos without a license do not have Game Break
Something that attracts a large number of players to unlicensed casino operations is the fact that Spelpaus is not applied to unlicensed sites. It is simply the case that players who have registered at Spelpaus make a pilgrimage to a casino without a license and play there instead. As the casino does not have a license from the Gambling Authority, they also do not need to be connected to Spelpaus.
Casino without Swedish License offers big Bonuses
Something that had to be in the past to be able to compete with all the different casinos was that they offered enormously large and generous welcome bonuses. Casinos without the Swedish license can still do that, and indeed they do.
It is common to find classic casino bonuses where you can get several thousand kroner for a deposit. This is something that players are still looking for and it is one of the many reasons that casinos without a Swedish license are here to stay.
Swedes can play at casinos without a Swedish license
It is completely legal for players to play at this type of casino. The only thing that applies is that the casino that does not have a Swedish license may not actively market itself to Swedish players.
This can be avoided by not offering the currency SEK and customer service in Swedish. The pages are also careful not to have a single word in Swedish on the pages.
Do players have to pay tax?
No, as long as the unlicensed casino does not actively target Swedish players and has a license from an EU country, it is completely tax-free. The tax situation has not changed significantly from how it was a few years ago.
However, it is common for casinos without a Swedish license to have received their license from Curacao, in which case a 30% profit tax applies, which the player himself must include in his declaration.
The corona pandemic is accelerating the growth of unlicensed casinos
Sweden's government realizes that the arrival of COVID-19 means that the population will stay at home more during the pandemic and then considers that there is also a risk that gambling problems will increase. It is decided that gambling limits must be introduced at Swedish-licensed casinos.
The game limit means that players can deposit a maximum of SEK 5,000 per week at an online casino. Such a rule does not exist in unlicensed casinos, but there are many who like to play for higher sums who have found this type of casino just because the limit was introduced.
Conclusion about Casino without Swedish License
Many were full of anticipation before the gambling regulation and hoped that a sensible gambling policy could finally be achieved that could benefit both the Swedish people and the casino operators. Unfortunately, it looks like casinos outside the Swedish licensing system are the winners.
With the fact that it is completely legal for players to play at a casino without a Swedish license and that they can get more value for money, it looks like if nothing drastic happens we will be back where we were a few years ago. How could it all go so wrong?