Svenska Spel loses the monopolist position on the Swedish market

Five years ago the European Commission ordered Sweden to cut the monopoly on the gambling market. Today the country decided to introduce new law that will liberalize the existing law.

Sweden decided for a new licensing system that will come into force August 1st this year. It means poker operators will be able to offer games legally.

Legal changes were practically started back in 2014 when The European Commission said the monopoly in Sweden does not protect anyone and the government of that country allows foreign operators to promote their sites anyway – Sweden never apprehended any entities for offering such services on their territory.

Sweden asked for time and started analyzing potential changes in the legislative system. In the effect they decided to liberalize the gambling market for foreign operators. Companies willing to operate there will have to pay 18% tax, but players will not be separated from other players in any way, which is good news.

European Commission's plan
Sweden is not a big market pokerwise. It's also not as important for the EU as Italy or France. The changes they proposed show however a very interesting direction in which gambling law in the EU seems to be going.

Onlinepokerreport emphasizes that Sweden is not the only country where the law is not in accordance with EU law. Commission has similar remarks for Belgium, Cyprus, The Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. There are also some doubts about Greece, Hungary and The Netherlands. For a few years they have been working on changes, but the results are not always satisfactory.

Josh Wood, who analyzes the Swedish market says there is a strong trend to liberalize poker market in the EU countries. For the last 12 months France, Portugal, Spain and Italy made a huge step towards the creation of a common pool of players. This is what most nations are currently after – one huge, European pool or even better – no divisions at all.