It has been nearly five years since the EU Commission told Sweden that its gambling laws contravened EU law, but finally the country has bowed to the pressure and passed new laws that will liberalize the gaming market from Jan. 1, 2019.
The only nationally regulated online poker operator in Sweden is Svenska Spel which has a state monopoly over online gambling.
However, because of the EU infringement proceedings foreign operators, including big names such as PokerStars, PartyPoker, 888 and Unibet have been able to ignore Sweden’s gambling laws and operate in the country with impunity.
Due to this, from the first of August of the present year the foreign companies can start sending their licenses applications. Taxes have been set at 18 percent of gross gaming revenue, and Swedish players will not be segregated from the international player pool. Both outcomes were recommendations from the research project. (READ SO: IGAMING IN SWEDEN: OPENING THEIR GAMBLING MARKET TO THE WORLD)
In the announcement of November 2013, the EU Commission launched infringement proceedings against six other states as well as accusing Sweden of failing to comply with EU law. These were Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
In addition, the commission reiterated that cases were also open against France, Germany, Greece, Hungary and the Netherlands.
