Sweden’s Spelinspektionen has contacted several payment service providers, where they have issued a warning to not conduct business with unlicensed gambling operators.
The regulator has emphasised that payment companies which work alongside unlicensed operators are violating the country’s Gaming Act. Spelinspektionen then stated that working alongside such operators could result in competition that is deemed as unfair, along with a loss of tax revenues across the regulated market.
The letter stated: “Payment service providers operating in the gaming market cannot transfer bets or winnings to and from unlicensed gaming companies, which contribute to the increased likelihood of money laundering, social damages and unfair competition.
“In a regulated market, it is important to protect license holders from unlicensed competition which are not authorised to operate in the Swedish market. Payment service providers that mediate bets or profits to and from unlicensed gaming companies contribute to unfair competition for the gaming companies licensed under the Gaming Act.”
While recently opening up its market to private online operators at the start of this year, Sweden has since issued stringent controls regarding compliance and regulations. The regulator then went on to explain in the letter that the unlicensed operators were not subject to the country’s money laundering and terrorist financing regulations.
With Spelinspektionen being able to enforce regulations for its licensees, it cannot impact operational functions for those that do not have a licence. Websites without a licence do not have access to the Spelpaus.se self-exclusion database, which means they are unable to offer players the ability to block access to iGaming sites.
