New anti-money laundering rules come into force land-based gaming in Sweden
The Swedish gambling regulator has advised licensees to review their operations to ensure compliance with the new requirements.
Sweden.- The Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has advised operators that land-based commercial casino gaming in Sweden is now subject to anti-money laundering regulations. As of today (September 1), the previous exemption has been repealed under an amendment to Spelinspektionen’s regulations and general advice (SIFS 2019:2) on measures against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The background to the amendment is an updated risk assessment in which the Swedish regulator concluded that the risk of money laundering in land-based commercial casino gaming was no longer low. As a result, the regulator stressed that licensees covered by the amendment need to review their operations and ensure that the requirements of the money laundering regulations are met.
This means that a licensee who provides land-based commercial casino gaming must have procedures and measures in place to protect their operations from being exploited for money laundering and terrorist financing. To ensure this, the licensee must adopt a risk-based approach and actively work to identify, analyse and assess the risks of being exploited for money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to the regulations, licensees must make a general risk assessment, know their customers and make a risk assessment of customers, establish procedures and guidelines, train the staff and establish routines for continual monitoring.
The risk-based approach assumes that the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing vary from case to case and change over time. Spelinspektionen stressed that it is a way of thinking and acting to prevent the operation from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing as effectively as possible. For the licensee, it should ensure that the most and most comprehensive measures are implemented where the licensee assesses that the risks are highest, the regulator said. Where the risk is higher, the licensee needs to take more and more comprehensive measures than where the risks are lower.
Following the closure of state-controlled Svenska Spel’s last Casino Cosmopol venue in April 2025, there are no longer any land-based casinos in Sweden, but there are gaming halls and restaurants with gaming machines. The regulator has published guidance for licensees and information on the work against money laundering and terrorist financing on its website.
One exemption remains. Licensees providing land-based commercial casino gaming continue to be exempt from the requirement to register players under the Gambling Act (Section 2 SIFS 2022:2). However, Spelinspektionen stressed that at the same time, the requirements of money laundering regulations apply. This means that licensees must have procedures and measures that ensure sufficient customer knowledge to counter money laundering and terrorist financing.
“The fact that a licensee does not need to register its customers in accordance with the provisions of the Gambling Act therefore does not exclude that the licensee may need to register its customers in another way in order to meet the customer due diligence requirements of the Money Laundering Act,” Spelinspektionen said.
The regulator added that work is ongoing on a new EU anti-money laundering framework set to enter force on July 10 2027. The work is being led by a new EU authority, AMLA, which will coordinate supervision and develop common standards across the EU.
The AMLR will become directly applicable law in all member states, complemented by technical standards and guidelines from the AMLA that will specify requirements of the regulation.
A new EU directive (Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive – AMLD6) that replaces the parts of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive that are not transferred to the AMLR.
“It is important that licensees follow the development of the new regulations and stay updated on upcoming changes, as well as take advantage of the information published on the authority’s website, among other things,” Spelinspektionen said.
