Another couple dozen Swedish online gambling hopefuls got an early Christmas present from the country’s gambling regulator, which doled out 26 more gaming licenses before knocking off for the year.
On Friday, Sweden’s Lotteriinspektionen/Spelinspektionen gaming regulatory agency announced another 26 new online and land-based license approvals for companies authorized to commence operations when the liberalized gambling market officially kicks off on January 1.
The full list of approved licensees can be viewed here, but the new recipients include such notables as 888 Holdings, Betfair, Finland’s PAF and local lads Cherry AB – whose various brands snagged a total of eight license approvals.
The number of approved operators now stands at 57, leaving only a handful of applications yet to be approved. Lotteriinspektionen director-general Camilla Rosenberg said it was “gratifying” to know that Swedish gamblers will have no shortage of online options come the new year.
Lotteriinspektionen’s Friday notice appeared to call a halt to further licensing announcements for 2018, saying that “several applications still need to be tried and decided and licensing is continuing after the turn of the year.” Earlier this week, the regulator warned that it wouldn’t be issuing any ‘temporary’ licenses to operators whose paperwork might require extra scrutiny.
Lotteriinspektionen also announced that the Administrative Court in Linköping had dismissed an appeal of Sweden’s new gambling laws brought by Svenska Fotbollförbundet, the nation’s football governing body. The group had sought to control what types of betting markets could be offered but the Court found no fault with the existing rules. The association has the option of appealing the ruling.
Finally, Lotteriinspektionen unveiled its proposals for the country’s national gambling self-exclusion registry, details of which can be found here. Stakeholders have been given until January 14 to submit comments on the proposal.
