A report from a Swedish governmental inquiry proposing that Swedish gambling operators be allowed to offer online casino gaming could be seen as a challenge to Malta, which licenses several offshore sites operating in the country.
The report says the country’s regulated gambling firms should be allowed to offer online casino gambling in an effort to increase competition in the industry and calls for a new licensing system.
State-owned casino Svenska Spel—which has been a protected monopoly in the country—has expressed an interest in adding online casino gaming, according to Swedish media. Sweden’s protection of Svenska Spel has been ruled in violation of European Union treaty law.
Sweden’s online gaming market, however, is dominated by overseas firms like Bet365, Unibet and Betsson, many of which are licensed in Malta.
According to a report in Malta Today, if Sweden accepts the report’s conclusions, the Swedish Gambling Authority will gain the authority to issue licenses to offshore operators with license fees that will range from $6,600 to $77,000, annual fees from $3,300 to $110,000, and gambling taxes set at 18 percent of gross gaming revenue.
Malta has a maximum €8,500 annual license fee and remote gaming tax capped at €466,000 per licensee and just 0.5 percent of the gross amount of bets for a remote fixed-odds betting license.
“This is a new proposal by the Swedish government, and there is still a long process to be carried out,” George Debrincat, chair of Malta’s Remote Gaming Council, told the paper. ““The gaming industry wants to operate in regulated markets where clear guidelines exist, since regulated markets protect the consumer and set a base for competition which provides the best service and prices to the consumers. The MRGC is aware of these new proposals, but the industry is not bound by geographical borders, and this means that, companies which have a license issued by other countries, can still continue to operate from Malta.”
PokerStars, which operates from both the Isle of Man and Malta, also reacted to the Swedish report.
“PokerStars welcomes the online gaming legislation that has been proposed in Sweden,” said Eric Hollreiser, Vice President Corporate Communications for PokerStars. “We are strong supporters of smart and sensible legislation that protects consumers, promotes regulatory oversight and provides choice. We are fully committed to our operation in Malta, which is a key office with hundreds of employees from which we operate the PokerStars EU license across much of Europe.”
Christian Sammut, the chair of Gaming Malta, which is the Maltese government’s investment promotion arm for the gaming industry, also told the paper that Malta should keep tabs on the Swedish proposal.
“We monitor jurisdictional developments from a gaming perspective and gauge our competitiveness and outreach thereafter,” he told Malta Today. “It is too early to comment on this upcoming development and one would have to analyze the legal framework being proposed once it gets notified under the required European process and whether it respects European law.”
