Gambling participants in Sweden could be tempted by the black market due to rules surrounding bonus limits, according to SBC’s Viktor Kayed.

Sweden’s battle to keep players onshore is ongoing due to the overregulation which has arguably backfired, certainly with regards to the country’s online casino sector.

Channelisation in general remains broadly in the black, standing at around 85% in 2023 albeit down 1% from the year prior, while online betting channelisation is doing well at between 92%-96%.

The issue is with online casino channelisation, well below target at between 72%-82%. It has been argued that extensive restrictions on betting and gaming products could be a contributing factor to this.

With Bonuses capped at just SEK 100 (~£8) and strict session checks, players are being tempted with heading offshore in pursuit of bigger bonuses with the current landscape struggling to appeal to customers.

Speaking on the latest episode of iGaming Daily’s podcast, Kayed expanded on the current player trends. 

He said: “Bonuses were allowed only upon sign-up and they were all capped at 100 Swedish Kroner, which is around £8per customer. So each customer could only get those eight pounds only per sign up, obviously it’s not gonna be appealing to a lot of customers.

“When asked why players are moving to the black market, 21% of them responded that there are more bonus offers there, better chances of winning, which is really speculative.”

Continuing on with legality issues, one news development saw the creation of a cryptocurrency casino, Milton Casino, which is without a Swedish gambling license.

It will exclusively only accept crypto payments and that feeds directly into the allure of unregulated markets that could tempt those gamblers who aren’t being fulfilled by the current legal regulations.

SBC News Editor Ted Orme-Claye commented on how the landscape has changed and how creations such as Milton Casino can exist. 

“Sweden obviously moved away from what was initially a very long-held monopoly that was in place for decades to now a more multi-licensed one. 

“It seems that there’s one or two things that have slipped through the cracks during that 2019 re-regulation that continue to linger and cause a couple of problems.”

SBC Media Director Martyn Elliott commented on the inception of the casino, emphasising another avenue that disgruntled Swedish gamblers could take in the future.

“A guy famous for tax avoidance and a guy who was famous as a gambling addict in Sweden got together and launched their own crypto casino,” he explained.

“They launched this without a license and when interviewed by one of the national newspapers, said, we don’t need a license, the law says we don’t need a license and they went and checked with the regulator and the regulator said, well, technically they are right.”