New Swedish Poker Laws

I didn't see anything posted about this, but I think it deserves a thread..

An investigation into poker/gambling in Sweden has been going on for quite a while now, and today they presented the results of it, along with the suggested revisions to the laws. I don't think it's available in english but to summarize the summaries I have read:

1) Playing Poker on sites other than (the state owned) Svenska Spel will NOT be allowed for Swedish citizens (btw, this effectively screws every non-swedish citizen over, since all foreign sites will be blocked and they can't play on SvS since you have to be swedish to do so).

2) An IP-Block will be instituted at the ISP-Level. This block will NOT be optional! (for reference, there's a similiar block in place, blacklisting known child pornography websites. However this is not technically mandatory, although I believe it's in place everywhere even so).

3) Banks will not perform transactions with known foreign gambling operators.

There are also some distinctions being made between "soft" and "hard" gambling. Sportsbetting = soft. Online Poker = Hard!! So technically international sportsbetting operations can obtain a license for the softer forms of gambling (if I understood things correctly), but will have to ban their swedish customers from the poker tables.

If this all passes the laws would be in place sometime 2011.

.. With this, the FRA, the IPRED and the proposed IPRED2 I'm starting to really dislike this country.

If any swedes want to read more (although I suppose most of you knew about this, I managed to miss it)
http://pokerforum.nu/forum/svenska-pokerfoerbundet/48156-spelutredning.html (thread is 6 months old, current discussion starts @ page 10)

Oh and to make things even more fun - SvS is apparently too incompetent a room to even manage to run the Swedish Poker Championships properly - they had to abort it because "too many people were signed in" or something retarded like that.

Guh I barely even play anymore and this still makes me pissed -.-

I don't understand the percieved need for such laws...

Impossible, Holland government is filled with bigger assholes and already tried, EU won't allow it.

sportsbetting is just good clean fun but poker ruins lives

I can not care less about some IKEA boys not being able to take some retards money.
We all know swedes are usually of better players. So i wont have any problem with them all being "wiped off the map" (Ya, Im from Iran!)

Christ. Wish I studied more in law school:D

FUCK FUCK FUCK

This is so sick, Denmark will probably do something like that too, we just had a court deem that its illegal to "seek proffesion from online poker" those fuckers!

damn this sucks indeed, but like kilay said they probably wont make it through the europian laws

The current swedish gambling laws have been in conflict with EU-laws and they are still there, 13 years after we joined the EU. That makes me a little bit scared the EU wont be able to stop this. Hope they can though.
On an other note, the current swedish government is supposed to be a right/liberal goverment. If this law passes they can seriously go fuck themselves. Did they think the swedish people voted liberal because we want more restrictions on our personal freedom?

Burn them, wtf this is so titling...

Considering what has happened in other places the EU will likely step in once again and bar any of this from holding up. All these serious attempts to shut poker down are really starting to piss me off though.

There are also some distinctions being made between "soft" and "hard" gambling. Sportsbetting = soft. Online Poker = Hard!! So technically international sportsbetting operations can obtain a license for the softer forms of gambling (if I understood things correctly), but will have to ban their swedish customers from the poker tables.

Thats maybe a little bit ridiculous?

like what on earth are these people thinking?

that its illegal to "seek proffesion from online poker

Well this one tops everything else, give more details? Anyone yet convicted for winning too much from poker? Like there is no law against being jobless on purpose, or damaging yourself on purpose (ie. drugs, alcohol) that you are permanently unable to work and then they have a law against seeking profession from online poker?

Also seeking profession from live poker is ok?

Well fuck it, the might actually go through with this. I read most of it and it sounds just like the kind of bullshit people try when they know what results they want before they start investigating something. Don't think it'll hold before the European court but since the normal way to handle those pesky treaties and human right issues seems to be to be this:

1. Ignore it, hope it'll go away.
2. If someone actually makes a case out of it, make sure to draw out on it.
3. If you lose, pay fines. See if someone notice if you don't change the laws.
4. Start an investigation, preferably incompetent and with to many questions to answer.
5. Wait 5 years.
6. Change laws a bit, but not enough to actually make a difference.
7. Repeat 1.

So basically if the jerk of lawyers our government hires is corrupt/annoying/gay enough to decide that they think it's ok to say that they feel that we're not fucking EU over enough so that we're not allowed to do that the legal way isn't good.

That would leave me a few options:

1. Quit poker.
2. Move somewhere.
3. Decide to take one for the team and just go medieval on their asses.

I think 3 is probably the best pick from a moral standpoint, but since it includes breaking a number of somewhat important laws I guess I can't recommend it. Also for me personally it would probably be the worst. The problem is that I like my family and friends so I don't really wanna move. Hopefully it won't this laws won't be relevant until I'm done with school so that I can move somewhere and not have to deal with this shit.

Also, wouldn't a encrypted connection to a server outside of Sweden/the EU fix this?

corruption is rampant in every government =[

"Also, wouldn't a encrypted connection to a server outside of Sweden/the EU fix this?"
yeah but it would still be harder to get the money...

And this will probably blow over, it has to be against EU regulations for monopoly?

On December 15 2008 15:32 asdf2000 wrote: corruption is rampant in every government =[

This was my 1st thought when reading that only svenska's gonna be allowed.

On December 15 2008 15:17 auffenpuffer wrote: Show nested quote + There are also some distinctions being made between "soft" and "hard" gambling. Sportsbetting = soft. Online Poker = Hard!! So technically international sportsbetting operations can obtain a license for the softer forms of gambling (if I understood things correctly), but will have to ban their swedish customers from the poker tables. Thats maybe a little bit ridiculous? like what on earth are these people thinking?   that its illegal to "seek proffesion from online poker Well this one tops everything else, give more details? Anyone yet convicted for winning too much from poker? Like there is no law against being jobless on purpose, or damaging yourself on purpose (ie. drugs, alcohol) that you are permanently unable to work and then they have a law against seeking profession from online poker? Also seeking profession from live poker is ok?

I think I read live poker is considered "soft" gambling.
Lol donkaments.

Am i the only one thinking VPN solves playing and some e-wallets payments?

On December 15 2008 15:35 Ond keso wrote: "Also, wouldn't a encrypted connection to a server outside of Sweden/the EU fix this?" yeah but it would still be harder to get the money... And this will probably blow over, it has to be against EU regulations for monopoly?

Yea, I guess. Put up a bank account in another country?

And it's really hard to make this shit with art. 49 or w/e it is but as I stated previously it's not a very effective regulation in a European level.