Illegal gambling sites use same platforms as licensed operators, ATG warns
Sweden’s supplier licences are supposed to prevent providers from working with unlicensed operators.
Sweden.- The horse racing betting operator Aktiebolaget Trav och Galopp (ATG) has reiterated its concerns about unlicensed gambling in Sweden after reporting that many unregulated sites use the same platforms as operators licensed by the Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen. ATG’s own investigation using web analytics tools found that 17 out of 20 of the most popular unlicensed sites used the same platforms as licensed offerings, something which shouldn’t be possible following the introduction of gaming supplier licences in Sweden from 2023.
ATG again suggested that channelisation to licensed offerings may be lower than what Spelinspektionen reports, estimating a rate of between 69 and 82 per cent in the last quarter of 2024. That’s well below the government’s target of 90 per cent. The operator’s data also suggests that the use of unlicensed sites has risen ten times since the licensed online gambling regime began in 2019.
ATG has reported that the channelisation rate was lowest for online casino offerings, at between 59 and 74 per cent compared to 79 to 88 per cent for sports betting. It said that six of the 20 sites it reviewed offered direct deposits and withdrawals via Swedish bank accounts through the country’s BankID identification system. Two of them were on Spelinspektionen’s existing black list but remained accessible.
The most popular site was Luckyjungle.com, which, according to ATG, began targeting the market in Q3 2023 and received 147,284 visits in the last quarter of 2024. “The site’s traffic has gone from zero to almost 150,000 visits in one year,” the report notes.
The next domains on the list are Unlimitcasino.com, which reportedly received 113,002 visits in the quarter, and Refuelcasino.com, with 94,456. The traffic to both of those reportedly fell quarter-on-quarter, but they were followed by Ibet.com and GG.bet, which both saw a rise in traffic, according to ATG.
ATG CEO Hasse Lord Skarplöth said: “It is unreasonable that such a large proportion of gambling still takes place outside the licence system. Unlicensed gambling is a breeding ground for money laundering. But above all, Swedish players are left without protection from rogue actors.
“Therefore, ATG will do what we can to help ensure that the fight against the unlicensed gaming companies continues day by day, month by month and until the licensed companies have a monopoly on gaming in Sweden.”
The online gambling industry association Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) has urged Sweden’s government to close what it describes as loopholes in the country’s Gambling Act. It made the call after a Swedish court quashed an injunction issued by the national gambling regulator Spelinspektionen against the payment provider Zimpler.
The Court of Appeal said that Sweden’s gambling regulations lacked “concreteness” in the definition of illegal gambling offerings because the wording states that operators can only be deemed to be targeting Swedish players if they use the Swedish language or list the Swedish Krona as an accepted currency.
Despite channelisation concerns, Spelinspektionen reported that Swedish gambling revenue rose by 2.65 per cent year-on-year in 2024 to SEK27.85bn (€2.49bn). Online gambling, including online casino and sports betting, saw revenue rise by 5 per cent year-on-year to SEK17.84bn.
The Swedish government has appointed Marcus Isgren, chairman and head of the Swedish Board of Consumer Complaints (ARN), as the investigator for the review of the country’s Gambling Act 2018. The legislation established the framework for the regulation of competitive online gambling in Sweden from January 2019. However, studies have suggested that player protection measures have been insufficient. Isgren must deliver a report by September 17. It’s expected that the government will propose tougher measures against unlicensed gambling operators.
