Gambling on licensed platforms declined in Sweden during 2020

The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling says the government should take action over the unregulated market.

Sweden.- A decrease has been registered in the figures of the gambling activity in the regulated market in Sweden.

Sweden’s State Treasury found that 85 per cent of gambling in the country during 2020 took place with operators licensed in Sweden. That’s a decrease from 90 per cent in 2019.

The state office has explained the drop as a consequence of the Covid-19 countermeasures, which prevented customers from gambling with licensed retail vendors as the businesses remained closed for many months.

Read more: Sweden failing to channel gamblers to legal sites

With more people turning to gamble online, the figures reveal that they have used more unlicensed platforms.

A statement from the State Treasury said: “BOS (The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling) emphasizes that there are gaming companies that try to circumvent the Swedish gaming law by avoiding using Swedish as a language and Swedish currency.

“But for many Swedes, it is no problem to play in English and to use other currencies.”

BOS secretary general Gustaf Hoffstedt argued government figures may underestimate the threat of the black market.

He said: “The increasing leakage to the unlicensed gaming market is due to two things: on the one hand, the Swedish-licensed gaming market has been plagued by so many government restrictions that gaming consumers have grown tired and to an increased extent sought their gaming experiences elsewhere.

“On the other hand, the gaming law has such major shortcomings that in Sweden unlicensed gaming companies have been able to continue to offer their games to Swedish gaming consumers without hindrance. This anomaly must end.”