Regulatory changes in Sweden’s online casinos causes a decline

The gambling industry of Sweden faces major changes in the regulatory system. The government approved new online gambling regulations which are so strict that actually implementing these changes are considered as a difficult task. As a result, some online casinos in Sweden have experienced a rapid decline in sales.

In fact, the revenue of the leading gaming companies in the country fell almost by 1/3 after accepting these tough limitations. A drop in their monthly turnover is around 30% in the period from June to August, as the Swedish media outlet, News 55 reports. The government introduced a deposit limit of SEK 5k weekly for online casino players and SEK100k on online casino bonus offers.

The influence of COVID-19

As the government states, applying new rules was necessary as a response to the coronavirus pandemic to reduce possible gambling-related harm to Swedish players, who were isolated at home. COVID-19 is believed to have caused lots of problems in the gambling sector, as the deposit limit caused lots of troubles and forced several customers to leave the licensing system.

One of the companies that were badly affected during the pandemic was the ComeOn Group, which is still facing big challenges as it saw a serious drop of about 30% in sales from June to August. However, the actual reason for this fall was the decision of the company to shut down two of its leading brands in May. Some other companies that have been affected by the regulations are Kindred Group, Hero Gaming, Spooniker, and many others that experienced big drops in their sales over the same period. The main reason for this is huge pressure on the online casino operators from Swedish players who tried to avoid restrictions and move to internationally licensed online casinos which haven’t been subjects of the new regulations.

However, there are some fortunate exceptions, including the nation’s sports betting companies who successfully managed to avoid declines, and even more, they showed a better result after the lockdown ended and sporting actions returned. Sports betting is rising for both domestic and global customers.

Online gambling in Sweden

In general, Swedish online gambling is a big opportunity for both local and international operators, as the industry continues to grow and digital infrastructure constantly develops. However, in the recent history of Sweden, there have been several cases of online gambling fraud which is why the government decided that to make changes in regulations to build trust between players and operators. However, apparently, new regulations didn’t turn out to be effective and after the pandemic, gambling-related harm maybe even increased. One thing is certain, they need to take further and more reasonable steps to stop the decline and improve the revenue of online casinos in Sweden.