Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), the Swedish trade association for online gambling, has backed the country’s audit office recommendation that the scope of the Swedish Gambling Act should be reviewed.
The recommendation from Riksrevisionen, the Swedish national audit office, was delivered as part of its audit of the country’s gambling authority Spelinspektionen, which determined that its supervision of the market was “not sufficiently effective”.
The audit office stated that Spelinspektionen conducts too few inspections, fails to prioritise assignments, and does not follow up on supervisory decisions, in addition to highlighting that supervision of the market has been “hampered by the lack of clarity in the Gambling Act”.
As a result, within its six recommendations at the end of its report, Riksrevisionen has recommended the government investigate the question of the scope of the Gambling Act to clarify in what cases online gambling is covered by the Gambling Act, as well as consider the possibility of expanding the scope.
BOS has stated that “a review of the Gambling Act’s so-called scope of application should take place”, adding that as the current scope determines which unlicensed gambling companies are illegal, “not all unlicensed gambling companies are, according to the current scope, illegal”.
The trade association said in a statement: “Typically, unlicensed gambling companies that offer their games in the English language and in the euro currency are legal. Only unlicensed gambling companies that use clear Swedish markers, such as the Swedish language on the website, Swedish-speaking customer service and Swedish krona as currency, are defined as illegal.
“All other unlicensed gambling companies can continue to sell their games to the Swedish gambling market, with the support of the Gambling Act.”
Reflecting on the audit office’s recommendation, Gustaf Hoffstedt, Secretary General at BOS, said that the trade association welcomes the comments made by Riksrevisionen.
Hoffstedt noted: “That today’s gambling legislation allows such extensive parts of the gambling market to operate without a licence is unsustainable. In front of both the current and previous governments, we have advocated an expansion of the Gambling Act’s scope of application.
“In this way, it would become generally illegal for gambling companies that lack a Swedish gambling licence to accept Swedish gambling consumers, and as a consequence these companies must geoblock Sweden. It is very welcome that the National Audit Office reasons in a similar way in the report published today.”
Last month, BOS commissioned consulting firm Advisense to conduct the AML State of Play survey to strengthen the trade association’s efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing.
This survey will ask BOS member companies questions on AML and terrorist financing to see what can be done in response to the increased risk following the rise of the internet, smartphones and new platforms being used for online gambling.
