Action Against Illegal Gambling in Sweden
Spelinspektionen's enforcement tools and 2025 results
Last verified: 2026-09-24
Spelinspektionen bans unlicensed operators, orders against promoting illegal gambling, and issues sanction fees; in 2025 its prohibition list named 70 operators.
Action against illegal gambling
Overview
Spelinspektionen supervises Sweden's licensed gambling market and acts against operators offering unlicensed gambling directed at Sweden. Its tools include prohibition decisions, orders concerning promotion of unlawful gambling, and sanction fees; it works with the police, the Prosecution Authority, the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Tax Agency, including a joint programme with the Financial Supervisory Authority on illegal gambling and money laundering that began in 2023.
At the end of 2025 its prohibition list named 70 operators. During the year it reviewed 180 to 220 unlicensed websites, issued 20 bans on providing gambling and 3 orders on promoting unlawful gambling, and prioritised skin betting and social-media influencer marketing of illegal gambling. Spelinspektionen estimates a channelisation rate of 85% for 2024, and that about a third of gambling outside the licensed market is directed at Sweden and therefore unlawful.
Action against illegal gambling, 2025
| Measure (2025) | Value | Verified against primary source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operators on the active prohibition list (year-end) | 70 | ✓ | GGL-equivalent figure for Spelinspektionen, year-end 2025 |
| Unlicensed websites reviewed during the year | 180-220 | ✓ | Spelinspektionen's own estimate range for 2025 |
| Decisions banning provision of gambling | 20 | ✓ | 2025 figure |
| Orders concerning promotion of unlawful gambling | 3 | ✓ | 2025 figure |
| Matters closed with no further action after correction | 12 | ✓ | 2025 figure |
| Prohibition decisions against skin-betting providers | 5 | ✓ | 2025 figure, a priority risk area for the year |
| Supervision matters opened (licence/permit holders + illegal gambling) | 216 | ✓ | 176 concerning licence/permit holders, 40 concerning illegal gambling |
| Sanction fees invoiced (SEK thousand) | 11 975 | ✓ | 2025 figure; 2024 was SEK 109,620 thousand due to decisions gaining final legal force that year |
Enforcement instruments, 2025 figures and the channelisation estimate. [1]
Joint programme with Finansinspektionen against illegal gambling and money laundering. [2]
Key facts
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Verified
In 2025 Spelinspektionen opened 216 supervision matters (176 concerning licence and permit holders and 40 concerning illegal gambling) and issued decisions in 198 matters, a 49% increase in opened matters compared with 2024; 97% of matters were closed within the agency's 12-month target.
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Verified
At the end of 2025, Spelinspektionen's public prohibition list named 70 operators subject to active bans on offering gambling directed at Sweden; during 2025 the agency reviewed roughly 180 to 220 unlicensed websites, issued 20 decisions banning the provision of gambling and 3 orders concerning promotion of unlawful gambling, and closed twelve matters with no further action after operators made corrections.
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Verified
During 2025, Spelinspektionen prioritised supervision of skin betting, issuing five prohibition decisions against skin-betting providers, and in spring 2025 opened supervision against influencers marketing illegal gambling on social media; several of those influencers stopped their activity after the agency's intervention.
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Verified
Under a method Spelinspektionen developed at the government's request, the channelisation rate (kanaliseringsgrad) — the share of gambling occurring within the licensed competitive market — was estimated at 86% for 2023 and 85% for 2024; among people who gambled at all, an estimated 96% did so at least partly on the licensed competitive market in 2024.
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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.
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Verified
Spelinspektionen supervises licence and registration holders' compliance with the Swedish anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing act (2017:630); in 2025 it issued three decisions with a warning and sanction fee concerning a licence holder's AML/CTF work, and mapped the general risk assessments, routines and guidelines of 38 licence holders offering land-based commercial gambling, online gambling and betting.
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Verified
On 4 May 2023 the government tasked Spelinspektionen and Finansinspektionen with jointly examining how to strengthen cooperation against illegal gambling and money laundering, including how to expand possibilities for blocking payment transfers to and from illegal gambling operations; the two agencies delivered a joint interim report on 31 October 2023.
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Verified
In late November 2025, following an updated 2025 national risk assessment for money laundering on the gambling market, Spelinspektionen circulated for consultation a proposed rule change that would remove the AML/CTF exemption previously applying to casino gambling licensed under chapter 9 of the gambling act (so-called restaurant casinos), along with the associated exemption from the requirement to register gambling agents.
Sources
- SpelinspektionenPrimary source — Spelinspektionens årsredovisning 2025 — https://www.spelinspektionen.se/globalassets/dokument/spelinspektionens-overgripande/spelinspektionens-arsredovisning-2025.pdf
- Finansinspektionen / SpelinspektionenPrimary source — Delredovisning: uppdrag om att se över hur samarbetet för att bekämpa olaglig spelverksamhet kan stärkas — https://fi.se/contentassets/048fc43a55d44481864439670a5f1c0f/delredovisning_fi_spelinspektionen.pdf