Spellagen (2018:1138)

Key facts

• Verified

  The Gambling Act (spellagen, 2018:1138) took effect on 1 January 2019, replacing the Lottery Act (1994:1000) and the Casino Act (1999:355) and moving Sweden from a system of a limited number of authorised operators to a licence-based system open to any qualifying applicant; a Swedish licence is required for all gambling directed at Sweden.

  Spelinspektionen

• Verified

  In its 2022 bill for a strengthened gambling regulation regime (Prop. 2021/22:242), the government proposed tightening the marketing-moderation standard in the gambling act from ordinary "moderation" (måttfullhet) to a stricter "särskild måttfullhet" (special moderation) standard for marketing gambling to consumers.

  Regeringen (Finansdepartementet)

• Verified

  When the Riksdag's Culture Committee (Kulturutskottet) considered the 2022 bill (bet. 2022/23:KrU2), it recommended rejecting specifically the "särskild måttfullhet" marketing clause and the termination of the Sweden-Finland ferry slot-machine agreement, while approving the bill's other measures — including a permit requirement for gambling-software providers from 1 July 2023, a ban on promoting unlawful gambling, an expanded advertising ban for unlicensed gambling, a market-disruption fee for breaches of the direct-marketing ban, and adjusted bonus-offer rules — effective 1 January 2023; the ordinary "måttfullhet" standard from the original 2019 gambling act therefore remains the marketing standard in force, not the stricter "särskild måttfullhet" some secondary sources describe.

  Kulturutskottet (Riksdagen)

• 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