Swedish gambling regulator slaps ban on Claymore Malta
The operator was found to be targeting Swedish gamblers without a licence.
Sweden.- The Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has banned Claymore Malta from providing games in the country. The regulator said it initiated a supervisory case against the company after suspicions arose that the website ibet.com was providing games aimed at the Swedish market without the necessary licence.
It inspected the site from December 1 to December 8 2025 and found that the Swedish country code is preselected when registering on the website from a Swedish IP address. It also found marketing through Swedish-speaking content creators on video streaming platforms and via Swedish-speaking websites aimed at Swedish consumers.
The regulator also carried out a test purchase on the website and found no systems in place to block Swedish customers. It said that Claymore also runs arcticcasino.com.
In a statement received on December 12, Claymore Malta Ltd said direct marketing via SMS to
Swedish customers had ceased and that the Swedish language no longer appeared
on the website ibet.com. It also said affiliate marketing had ceased. However, the Swedish regulator claimed that such marketing was still ongoing.
Spelinspektionen is hoping for more powers to tackle unlicensed gambling following the conclusion of a review of Swedish Gambling legislation last year. The government-commissioned review of the Swedish Gambling Act of 2018 proposed the removal the “so-called directional criterion”, under which only online games specifically aimed at the Swedish market are covered by the law.
Instead of focusing on whether an online game is aimed at Sweden, the scope of application of the Gambling Act would be based on a participant perspective, where the decisive question is whether persons who are in Sweden can participate in the gaming offer.
That would mean that in order not to be covered by the Gambling Act, online gambling companies would be required to “take appropriate and effective measures to prevent participation from Sweden”, such as geoblocking.
