Minister for Social Security Ardalan Shekarabi announced on Monday that the Government appoint a new gambling enquiry. The new enquiry shall investigate how to combat unlicensed gambling as well as match fixing. The head of The Legal, Financial and Administrative Agency (Swe: “Kammarkollegiet”) Gunnar Larsson is appointed to lead the enquiry.

– This is an initiative from the Government that we welcome. The first two years of re-regulated gambling market in Sweden has been noticed by repressive measures from authorities and the Government towards the in Sweden licensed operators, whereas unlicensed operators have been left untouched. Meanwhile a growing proportion of the Swedish punters have been abandoning the Swedish licensing market, with online casino as the most extreme example with a leakage out of the system of at least 25 per cent. Considering that the Government’s goal is that at least 90 per cent of Sweden’s gambling shall stay within the licensing system by January 1 2022, that goal appears very distant, says Hoffstedt.

– We welcome that the Government appear to have understood and accepted policy standpoints that the industry has been highlighting as flaws in the Swedish gambling regulation. One of the severe problems with the current legislation is that despite the Government’s rhetoric most of the unlicensed gambling that Swedish punters are offered is in fact legal. I believe the new enquiry shall start and solve that issue to begin with, Hoffstedt concludes.