Swedish Casino License

This blog post will be about the new casino legislation in Sweden which goes into effect in the beginning of 2019. We’ll get into some details we know of and what will change for us players and the casinos. I’ll also let you in on my thoughts about it and how it might affect the casino streamers.

Why a Swedish license?

The Swedish government has had a strict monopoly on gambling for a long time. This has lead to Swedish companies moving abroad, mostly to countries like Malta. The goal with this new legislation is to make the industry safer for players. By closing the loopholes in the law it regulates how foreign establishments can operate in Sweden. At the same time appeal to Swedish companies abroad into moving back and creating job opportunities in Sweden as well as taking in more money from taxation. This new law means that Casinos needs to apply for a Swedish Casino License. To be granted the license casinos has to fulfill a list of demands. Here is some of the demands worth mentioning.

• The casino can only offer one welcome bonus. Free spins, cashback and other loyalty bonuses will be strictly forbidden.
• Moderation has to be observed by the casino in commercials.
• Gambling on credit will be strictly forbidden.
• At registration, verification and transactions Bank ID shall be used.
• Possibilities for players to see their transaction and bet history.
• Loss and deposit limits shall be easy to access.
• Self exclusion possible on casinos but also through a national system.

How will this affect streaming casino?

I have gotten some questions of how this will affect the streambonus we get when streaming. By limiting the amount of bonuses an online casino can offer a player it also limits the opportunity to hand out streaming bonuses. A streaming bonus is a type of bonus streamers get in return for playing and promoting their casino. I am not completely sure that this will be the reality in the beginning of the next year. But it is a strong possibility. Streamers will of course lose an edge to be profitable with their gambling. Instead we might see streamers, including myself, doing raw deposits.

My thoughts

I think the license in general is a good progress. It makes gambling more regulated and we’ll get a safer gambling environment here in Sweden. But also to generate tax money from foreign companies operating in Sweden. The license will not affect the players too much. You might want to be extra careful on what sites you play on to make sure that they have the Swedish license to avoid having to pay taxes from your wins. Bonuses and free spins will be harder to find since you can only receive it on the first deposit.

For the casinos it will be a bigger difference however. To operate successfully within the Swedish market they need to fulfill the demands of this license and pay a license fee. They also need to tax on their profit at a 18% rate. It will be harder to keep players since they can only give out a welcome bonus and no free spins or cash back as loyalty rewards.

Many casinos has already applied for the license. I’ve listed some of them down below.