Legal online casinos benefit from new regulation in Sweden

In January 2019, the new regulation of gambling came into force in Sweden. Almost three years later, the Swedish government wanted to find out how efficient and effective the restructuring was. For this purpose, the Swedish Statskontoret, i.e. the office for public administration, was commissioned to carry out a corresponding analysis on this topic. The result: Legal online casinos have benefited greatly from the new regulation. About a year ago, however, we reported exactly the opposite in an article. Here we asked ourselves whether the declining channelization in Sweden is a warning signal for the best online casinos in some countries.

Analysis from 2018 to 2022: consumer protection and channeling in focus

In the period from 2018 to 2022, the Office of Public Administration in Sweden primarily considered and evaluated consumer protection and channeling. The office surprisingly found that the gaming market in 2021, for example, worked much better than in 2018. The restructuring of the gaming market took place in Sweden on January 1, 2019.

High demand for legal gambling providers

A large number of Swedish players attach importance to the fact that a gambling provider has a valid license and accordingly pays taxes in Sweden. The analysis of the administrative office shows that the degree of channeling has increased significantly in the period under review. From this it can be concluded that the legal gambling providers could and still can look forward to a large influx of new customers. In addition to the gambling regulations, the Swedish gambling supervisory authority is also considered to be very strict. Only in September last year did we report that Mr Green had been fined three million euros.

According to the Swedish Statskontoret, the degree of channelization in 2018 was still below the 50% mark. In 2021, however, the degree of canalisation is said to have already reached 87%. This means that the majority of Swedish players now play with a provider licensed in Sweden.

And that despite the fact that the measures to protect players have become much stricter with the restructuring.

Conclusion

Despite some problems, the restructuring of the Swedish gambling market seems to have been successful for both providers and players. While the providers have to adhere to strict player protection measures and have to pay taxes in Sweden, the players refrain from further bonus offers after the welcome bonus, among other things.

However, it remains questionable whether the degree of channeling is actually as stated at almost 90%. Illegal gambling providers without a Swedish license are still active on the online gambling market – sometimes with great success.