To ensure a fair gaming environment for Swedish players, Director General of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, Gunnar Larsson, is taking on the task of recognizing any potential black-market threats. In addition to identifying any obstacles, Larsson is also to propose solutions that will help the Swedish gaming market to stay properly regulated.
Larsson was officially appointed to his new duties by Ardalan Shekarabi, Swedish Social Affairs Minister, who has been working on resolving the problem with the increased gambling activity at unlicensed operators during the pandemic.
Inquiry on Identifying Unlicensed Operators
One of the issues that Larsson needs to investigate is the difficulties that the Swedish Gambling Authority is facing when trying to block payments at unlicensed offshore operators. Such black-market websites have been increasingly targeting Swedish users, enhancing the issue with illegal gambling in the past few months.
The inquiry that Larsson will carry out will also investigate the competence of the Swedish government and regulatory bodies to handle and eliminate illegal gambling threats in the country. The inquiry is following the proposition of Shekarabi to prolong player controls until mid-2021. Meanwhile, one of the measures the government has imposed on online casinos is to maintain a weekly deposit maximum of SEK5,000.
Shekarabi ensures that the main goal of the inquiry is to protect Swedish players from any illegal gambling activities. Meanwhile, the government is also trying to eliminate any black-market actors from the regulated Swedish market and ensure fair competition for licensed operators.
Combating Match-Fixing via Larsson’s Inquiry
Another point that the inquiry will focus on is stamping out match-fixing and ensuring tools to prevent such activities. The goal of Larsson’s inquiry is to maintain the reputation of fair sporting events but also ensure that they are not used for any illegal betting activities.
The regulatory bodies, sports organizations, and gaming operators must be able to work together towards the elimination of match-fixing. This is why the inquiry will focus on securing proper communication between all actors involved in match-fixing prevention. Larsson will also investigate the work of the Swedish Gambling Authority and the Match-Fixing Council, determining how well they handle the match-fixing issue in the country.
While the Swedish government is taking different measures to eliminate any black-market actors and match-fixing, some licensed operators are blaming the harsh gaming restrictions for the increase of betting at unlicensed operators. The biggest operators in the country are also stating that measures like Spelpaus, ensuring self-exclusion, are simply ineffective.
Secretary-general of the Swedish iGaming Trade Association (BOS), Gustaf Hoffstedt, supported Larsson’s inquiry but stated that the situation requires urgent actions. BOS represents the Swedish licensed operators that believe the harsh measures in the last two years have been concentrating solely on licensed operators while black-market operators have not been regulated in any way.
