Review of the Act's Targeting Criterion

Key facts

• Verified

  The Riksrevisionen (Swedish National Audit Office) found that Spelinspektionen conducts too few inspections, does not select its supervision targets based on well-founded risk analysis, and does not sufficiently follow up whether identified deficiencies have been corrected; it also found that the gambling act's current scope, in particular the "targeting criterion" (riktningskriteriet) that limits the act to online gambling directed at the Swedish market, complicates Spelinspektionen's work against illegal gambling.

  Regeringen

• Verified

  In its response to the Riksrevisionen's report, the government welcomed the audit, agreed that Spelinspektionen had at times lacked the conditions to conduct sufficient supervision, said it had taken several steps to strengthen the agency's supervisory capacity, and had commissioned an expert to assist the Ministry of Finance with proposals on how the gambling act's scope should be designed.

  Regeringen

• Verified

  As of Spelinspektionen's 2025 annual report, an inquiry into the gambling act's targeting criterion was under way during 2025, but the government had not yet put forward any legislative amendment on the point.

  Spelinspektionen

• Verified

  Spelinspektionen estimates that, of online gambling occurring outside the licensed market, about one third is directed at Sweden and therefore unlawful under the gambling act's current scope, while the remaining two thirds is not considered directed at Sweden and so is not deemed unlawful; on this breakdown the agency puts the licensed market at 85%, illegal unlicensed gambling at 5%, and non-illegal unlicensed gambling at 10% of the whole market.

  Spelinspektionen