Online gambling is a controversial topic in Sweden right now, with opinions ranging from those who call for tighter restrictions to those who say that the current regime is already too restrictive and hurts channelization, that is to say the regulated market’s success in steering players away from unlicensed operators.
But it is business as usual for Spelinspektionen, the country’s gambling regulator, and it has not stopped issuing new online gambling licenses despite all the turmoil.
The most recent operator to get Spelinspektionen authorization to enter the Swedish market was Alea Ltd. The company obtained a three-year license last week, according to a message on the gambling regulator’s website.
Alea is the owner of SlotsMillion, an online casino that made the headlines a couple of years ago by becoming the first online gaming business to take on virtual reality. SlotsMillion currently offers more than 3,000 slot games, 317 table games, and 40 VR games from more than 100 of the world’s most popular iGaming content providers.
The operator also holds licenses from the UK Gambling Commission and the Malta Gaming Authority to deliver casino experience via its SlotsMillion brand in some of the largest gambling markets across Europe and beyond.
Alea became the 98th online gambling operator to get licensed by Spelinspektionen as part of the reorganization of Sweden’s market, which started in early 2019.
ComeOn Closes Two Sweden-Facing Brands
And while some are getting ready to enter the Swedish iGaming space, others have just announced their departure after protesting a proposal from Swedish Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi for the introduction of new weekly limits on deposits and bonuses in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
ComeOn Group, which is owned by Swedish gambling group Cherry, said last week that it was closing two of its online casino brands, Sveacasino.com and Cherrycasino.com, “in Sweden only.” The company also pointed out that it had relinquished the licenses for those brands it had previously obtained from Spelinspektionen.
ComeOn’s CEO, Lahcene Merzoug, was among a group of online gambling executives who signed a public letter to Minister Shekarabi, urging him to scrap plans for the weekly deposit and bonus limits.
The Swedish government has argued that the implementation of such limits would curb the negative impact of increased online gambling amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, industry stakeholders have noted that the move would actually steer gamblers to the black market where there are no limits, but there also no safeguards.
According to Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), an organization representing Sweden’s licensed online gambling operators, the country’s market reorganization has already been failing in its channelization efforts.
BOS members also believe that the addition of new restrictions to an already restrictive regime would eventually lead to an increase in problem gambling, instead of reducing the number of people with problem gambling behavior and of those suffering from gambling addiction.
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