Sweden’s MoF states a justification for offshore impact | Licensing
The Swedish Ministry of Finance and Chamber of Commerce Director General Gunnar Larsson have offered an explanation for last week’s proposal to tighten control over offshore operators that make games in the country.
The report from Larsson and the ministry was commissioned by Minister of Social Affairs Ardalan Shekerabi to investigate match-fixing and illegal gambling as well as sanctions for crimes against money laundering.
According to the current system, the supervisory authority Spelinspektionen has authority over all games that are focused on the Swedish market – for example through marketing or local payment alternatives – and can take action against operators who do so without a license.
But in a short summary of the report, Larsson revealed last week that he recommended that the scope of the team be changed to include all games available to Swedish players.
With the full report published, the Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance described more fully the reasons why such a change should be made.
The report says that “it is necessary to shift the focus from what possible measures gaming companies have taken to attract Swedish customers and instead focus on whether the company has taken measures to prevent participation from Sweden”.
It added that according to current rules, it can be difficult to determine whether a website offers gaming to Swedish players or not, especially since many Swedes can be comfortable using websites in English and pay in euros.
As a result, it claimed that the new approach is “considerably simplified”.
“To determine whether an online game is covered by the Gaming Act, it is sufficient to conjure up whether it is possible for a player who is in Sweden to register and create an account,” it said. “For the application of blocking card payments, payment service providers can block payments to anyone who does not have a Swedish gaming license.”
The report went on to note that – when the Gaming Act was introduced – the government chose to let its scope only cover games aimed at Sweden so that not all network operators were required to apply for a license. This, it said, ignored the fact that operators could instead simply block Swedish customers.
While the report acknowledged that the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate cannot take action against all websites that do not block Swedish customers, it will still have additional power compared to its current situation.
The proposal to change the approach to unlicensed gaming comes after Dutch Consumer Protection Minister Sander Dekker announced a similar change just before the country’s online gaming market opened. As a result, a number of operators such as Entain, Kindred, 888 Betsson, LeoVegas and Casumo all blocked Dutch customers when pursuing a license.
In addition, the report provided a reasoning behind further recommendations.
For example, the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate can conduct “mystery shopping”, so that it can see if certain gaming sites are available to Swedish players. It said that “covert surveillance” was necessary to prove that the operators accepted Swedish customers.
The report also stated that it did not consider that it would require all payment service providers to block all unlicensed websites, as this could prove to be too burdensome for providers.
In view of match-fixing-related recommendations, the report outlined the details behind the proposed reporting requirements, such as the fact that all operators must report all suspected cases of professional athletes betting in breach of match-fixing rules.
The report noted that in Sweden there is currently “no player who has a clearly stated responsibility for obtaining, compiling, analyzing and disseminating information about suspected match-fixing”, and that information sharing has been damaged by certain data protection rules.
It also noted that in the past, there have been games with suspicious gaming activity where some operators suspended games but others did not.