With the recently announced shift by the Swedish Social Democrats, there is now a substantial political consensus that current Swedish gaming legislation is out of date.
According to Dr Ola Wiklund, a partner from Gernandt & Danielsson Law Firm, Stockholm, this merely reflects the fact that in practice, the Swedish online gaming market is rather open with fierce competition between state controlled operators and Swedish private brands established abroad, but legally offering their services to Swedish consumers.
"Lacking other jurisdictional means," Wiklund told iNTERGAMINGi, "the Swedish authorities have focused their struggle against unlicensed gaming activities through a ban on promotion. And it is still prohibited in commercial operations or otherwise to promote without a special licence for the purpose of profit, participation in unlicensed gambling, organised within Sweden or abroad. The - failed - prohibition of promotion therefore is key to understanding why there is a growing consensus for the need of a reformed gaming legislation."
Without yet formally striking it down, the Swedish courts have been persistently sceptical about the compliance between on one hand, both EU law and the old freedom of the press and free speech, and on the other hand, the promotion prohibition. Last year the Swedish Gaming Board had to surrender its attempt to claim that the banks’ provision of payment services in connection to unlicensed gambling constituted a violation of the promotion prohibition.
While the prohibition has proved blunt - in fact resulting in open competition for Swedish online gaming consumers - the Swedish online gaming industry is booming, according to Wiklund. "With an aggregated workforce corresponding to that of the crisis that hit Saab Automobile and its sub-contractors, the politicians are starting to realise the benefits of the online gaming industry and the pros of a formally open and regulated market. Their main political challenge for the coming years is therefore how to successfully launch a truly commercially attractive licensing regime."
