Swedish Gaming Law on the Point of Stupidity
Redeye.se is an equity research company that is focused on the Nordic market. On their website they have a banner to Betssons stock “betting” website, Betsson Trader, where you can bet on stock. Essentially you can “trade” stocks without actually buying them.
Lotteriinspektionen has told Redeye to remove this banner because they consider it a gaming banner and they are prohibited by Swedish law. Redeyes own blog post on the topic is very insightful and asks the question that needs to be asked: Does this mean that trading stock is a game of chance?
The legal developments surrounding Online gaming in general is very interesting to follow and one by one the EU countries make moves towards opening their markets. The poker market is a very prominent example of this where Italy has already regulated online tournament poker and is likely to open up cash games soon, France is drafting a regulation law for Poker as I write this and I think it’s only a matter of time until Germany and the UK will follow. It’s not unlikely that the US will come to the obvious conclusion that banning online gaming isn’t the solution to the gaming problem nor the financial shortcomings it may bring when overseas providers “take” money from your citizens and hence that money leaves the country, because that’s what all these legislations boil down to, sovereign states want their citizens to pay tax where they live.
With regulated markets there’s a way to come around this financial issue and with the EG directives about open trade and fair markets that’ll be the only alternative for the EU countries over time.
The question is, how long will it take for Sweden to realize that 17th century politics and laws doesn’t apply to 21st century technology and public opinion.
