How to get a gambling licence in Sweden: fees and steps

The Gambling Act divides the Swedish market into three parts. Only the competitive segment is open to private commercial operators.

• Regulator: Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority, an administrative agency, licenses operators, supervises conduct and takes enforcement action under Spellagen.
• Competitive segment: commercial online gambling (kommersiellt onlinespel, Spellagen 7 kap.) and betting (vadhållning, Spellagen 8 kap.). Open to any suitable applicant. This is the B2C focus of this guide.
• Public-benefit segment: lotteries and land-based bingo reserved for non-profit associations serving a public purpose (Spellagen 6 kap.).
• State segment: the state lottery and value machines, reserved for a wholly state-owned company, AB Svenska Spel (Spellagen 5 kap.). The state licence for casino games in a dedicated casino premises ended on 1 January 2026; commercial restaurant-casino licences remain (land-based).
• Since 1 July 2023 a separate business-to-business permit is required to supply gambling software to licensed online operators (Spellagen 11 kap. 6 a §).

Laws that apply

• Spellagen (2018:1138), Gambling Act (primary licensing statute)
• Spelforordningen (2018:1475), Gambling Ordinance (application fees, supervision fees, detail rules)
• Lag (2018:1139) om skatt på spel, Gambling Tax Act (22 percent GGR tax)
• Lag (2017:630) om åtgärder mot penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism, Anti-Money Laundering Act
• Spelinspektionens föreskrifter (SIFS), including SIFS 2026:1 on annual supervision fees

A licence is granted for a specified period of up to five years (Spellagen 4 kap. 8 §). There is no automatic renewal: renewal is a new full application, and if it reaches Spelinspektionen at least four months before expiry the current licence stays valid until the decision.

There is no fixed minimum share capital, but the applicant must be suitable and demonstrate the knowledge, experience, organisation and financial capacity to run the business lawfully.

• Establishment: an applicant established in the European Economic Area may apply directly. A licence holder without residence or establishment in the EEA must have a natural-person representative resident in Sweden, with a power of attorney covering all matters under the licence, including acceptance of service (Spellagen 4 kap. 4-5 §§).
• Suitability (lämplighet): the applicant must have the knowledge, experience and organisation to run the business and be expected to run it lawfully. Owners with a qualifying holding (10 per cent or more of capital or votes, or significant influence) and the board and management must also be otherwise suitable; the licence must be refused if the applicant, or any of them, is bankrupt, under 18, has an administrator (förvaltare), has materially neglected business obligations or has committed serious crime (Spellagen 4 kap. 1-3 §§).
• Financial capacity: there is no statutory minimum share capital; the application carries audited accounts for two years (or, for a new company, documents showing its capital strength) and a financing plan with a two-year forecast. Spelinspektionen’s view is that negative equity ordinarily means the suitability requirement is not met.
• Documentation must be in Swedish or accompanied by a Swedish translation for which the applicant is responsible. Processing does not begin until the application fee is received.

Application fees are set in the Gambling Ordinance (Spelforordningen 2018:1475), chapter 15. They are one-time fees for examining an application, paid in Swedish kronor before handling starts and not refunded if the application is refused.

In addition to the one-time application fee, every licence holder pays a recurring supervision fee (tillsynsavgift) that funds Spelinspektionen. The fee is charged per licence, in advance, for each 12-month fee period (Spelforordningen 15 kap.; Spelinspektionen regulation SIFS 2026:1).

Licensed commercial gambling is taxed under the Gambling Tax Act (lag 2018:1139) and administered by Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency). The rate is 22 percent of gross gaming revenue.

Online operators carry a statutory duty of care to protect players from excessive gambling (Spellagen 14 kap. 1 §), backed by mandatory tools and connection to national systems.

• Spelpaus.se: the national self-exclusion register. Operators must check it at registration, at every login and before direct marketing, through its API under SIFS 2026:3 (from 1 August 2026), refuse any customer registered there, and offer their own self-exclusion, including an immediate 24-hour exclusion from online casino, online bingo and computer-simulated slot games where they offer those games (Spellagen 14 kap. 11 §).
• Mandatory limits: online customers must set a deposit limit per day, week and month before they can play; a raised limit applies after at least 72 hours, and raising a limit, or setting a monthly limit above SEK 10,000, triggers contact under the duty of care (Spelförordningen 11 kap. 5 §).
• Reality checks and monitoring: operators must show elapsed time and net wins/losses, provide self-assessment tools and log-in limits, and actively monitor and follow up player behaviour.
• No credit: since 1 May 2026 licence holders and agents may not allow or take part in gambling financed with credit, and must take suitable measures to counter it (Spellagen 14 kap. 8 §, SFS 2026:90).
• Minimum age 18: licensable gambling may not be provided to anyone under 18 (Spellagen 14 kap. 2 §).
• Technical and reporting requirements: an accredited body assesses the gaming system, business system and procedures before use, renewed at least every twelve months; the gaming system sits in Sweden unless Spelinspektionen gets satisfactory remote access or the home regulator has a supervision agreement with it; game software must come from a permit holder; responsible-gambling statistics are reported twice a year.

Licensed gambling operators are obliged entities under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (lag 2017:630), with Spelinspektionen as the supervisory authority for the sector.

• Operators must maintain a risk assessment, customer due diligence and know-your-customer procedures, ongoing monitoring and record-keeping.
• Where the size and nature of the business justify it, a compliance function is required; suspicious activity is reported without delay to Finanspolisen, the financial intelligence unit, through goAML.
• Spelinspektionen supervises AML compliance and can impose a sanction fee of at least SEK 5,000 and at most the highest of 10 percent of turnover, twice the profit from the breach, or the krona equivalent of EUR 1 million. In May 2025 it fined Spooniker SEK 10,000,000, TSG Interactive SEK 7,000,000, Betsson Nordic SEK 6,500,000 and Snabbare SEK 5,500,000.

Marketing of gambling to consumers must observe moderation (måttfullhet) under Spellagen 15 kap. 1 §, and bonus offers are tightly restricted.

• Moderation (måttfullhet): all marketing to consumers must be moderate; it may not be aggressive, may not target people under 18, and is subject to limits on direct and broadcast marketing.
• Bonus restriction: a licence holder may only offer or provide a bonus on the first occasion a player plays one of the operator's games (Spellagen 14 kap. 9 §). Recurring or ongoing bonuses are not permitted.
• Marketing must not be directed at self-excluded players, and every commercial message must state the minimum age and, except on radio, a support organisation’s contact details (Spellagen 15 kap. 2-3 §§).

Spelinspektionen supervises licensees and pursues unlicensed operators. Interventions range from remarks and warnings to injunctions and financial sanctions.

• Sanction fee (sanktionsavgift): at least SEK 5,000 and at most 10 percent of the licence holder's turnover in the preceding financial year (Spellagen 19 kap. 13 §).
• Other measures: remarks, warnings, orders and injunctions (with the option of penalty payments) and, ultimately, revocation of a licence.
• Unlicensed operators: Spelinspektionen issues prohibition orders with a penalty (74 decisions from 2019 to 2026), Swedish payment providers must reject card payments to unlicensed gambling, and promoting unlicensed gambling for gain is an offence. It has no power to block domains.
• The full list of current licence holders is published in Spelinspektionen's licence register.

Indicative route for a commercial online B2C operator applying for commercial online gambling and betting licences. Tracks partly overlap; the binding path is the suitability and technical review by Spelinspektionen.

1. 01

   Set up the applicant and, if needed, a representative

   Establishment

   Use an EEA-established company or appoint a Swedish resident representative if the licence holder will have no residence or establishment in the EEA (Spellagen 4 kap. 4 §). Map ownership and beneficial owners.

2. 02

   Check suitability

   Fit and proper

   Check owners with a qualifying holding, the board and management against the suitability test; each person files a Bilaga A, with criminal-record extracts no older than six months for anyone registered abroad. Spelinspektionen gives no advance rulings.

3. 03

   Evidence financial capacity

   Financing

   Assemble two years of audited accounts (or capital documents for a new company) and a financing plan with a two-year forecast. There is no fixed minimum capital, but capacity must be shown.

4. 04

   Build the player-protection stack

   Omsorgsplikt

   Integrate Spelpaus.se self-exclusion, mandatory day/week/month deposit limits, reality checks, self-assessment tools and behaviour monitoring; make sure no gambling is financed with credit.

5. 05

   Arrange licensed game software

   Technical

   Source online-gambling software from a permit holder (Spellagen 11 kap. 6 a §) and have an accredited body assess the gaming system, business system and procedures; the assessment basis goes with the application.

6. 06

   Prepare the AML programme

   AML

   Produce a risk assessment, CDD/KYC procedures, monitoring, record-keeping and a compliance function under the AML Act (lag 2017:630).

7. 07

   File the licence applications and pay the fees

   Application

   Submit the applications in Swedish, through the web service or the PDF form. Applying for both licences at the same time costs one SEK 230,000 application fee. Handling begins once the fee is paid.

8. 08

   Clear Spelinspektionen review

   Assessment

   Respond to requests during the suitability, financial and technical review. There is no statutory decision deadline; in 2025, 97 percent of licence, permit and venue matters were decided within six months.

9. 09

   Receive the licences

   Grant

   Licences are granted for a fixed term of up to five years (Spellagen 4 kap. 8 §), with no automatic renewal.

10. 10

    Connect reporting and pay the supervision fee

    Go-live prep

    Complete supervisory access and reporting, and settle the annual supervision fee of SEK 240,000 per licence, invoiced in advance (SIFS 2026:1).

11. 11

    Launch under the conduct rules

    Operate

    Run only within age-18, no-credit, Spelpaus, deposit-limit, moderation-in-marketing and first-time-only-bonus rules. File monthly gambling-tax returns to Skatteverket at 22 percent of GGR.

12. 12

    Maintain and renew

    Ongoing

    Keep suitability, AML and technical compliance current, pay each annual supervision fee, and file a renewal application at least four months before the term expires so the licence stays valid until the decision.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 13 Oct 2026.