Gambling tax might be on the rise in Sweden

21 September 2023

By Jarrod LeBlanc

In the medical field, if someone is stable then they’re okay at the moment, but not out of the woods yet.

This is why Wednesday when the Swedish government declared that the market should have stabilized since the 2019 re-regulation thus proposing a gambling tax increase from 18 to 22%, the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling, or BOS (Branschföreningen för Onlinespel), implored Regeringen to reconsider its proposal.

According to the Regeringen, the increase, which would take effect on 1 July 2024, could bring an additional SEK540.0m in additional tax revenue each year and help the country reach the channelization goal of 90%.

“The reasons for caution when setting the tax level should therefore not be as strong now as during the reregulation,” said the Regeringen. “An increase from 18% to 22% is judged to be at a suitable level to strengthen the financing of government activities, without it leading to too great an impact on the companies and the size of the tax base.”

However, the BOS strongly disagrees as it fears that this increase will drop the channelization rate below the percentage it was at prior to when Sweden re-regulated its gambling market in 2019, which is the same year that the country allowed operators to apply for licenses and legally offer gambling.

“We were recently able to show that channelization in the Swedish gambling market is 77%,” said Secretary General Gustaf Hoffstedt. “Some gambling verticals, including online casino, are as low as 72%. The trend is also declining; in other words. the channeling decreases over time.

“We are already far from the state’s goal of at least 90% channelization. If this tax increase is approved by the Riksdag, we will soon be down to the channelization we had before Sweden reregulated its gambling market in 2019. A reregulation that took place because Sweden had such a low channelization at the time.

“Sweden’s government must perform much better than this. There is still time to withdraw the proposal.”