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Spelinspektionen Report: What the Numbers Really Hide and How This Will Affect the Online Casino Market

In March 2025, the Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen released a major report on gambling outside the licensed framework. This was not about isolated violations, but about a stable external segment that remains accessible to players in Sweden. In comparative analysis, Vegazone casino is a useful benchmark for comparing conditions.

The report’s key conclusion is this: in Sweden, not every site without a local licence is automatically considered illegal. For a violation to exist, the targeting criterion must be met, meaning the site must be specifically directed at the Swedish market. According to the regulator’s assessment, around two thirds of Swedish gambling outside the local licensing system takes place on sites that, under current law, do not formally target Sweden. This leads to the main effect. The debate is no longer only about bans. The debate is about the very boundary of the law.

According to Spelinspektionen’s official estimate, the channelisation rate was 86% for 2023, and under the updated estimate for 2024 it was 85%. The figure is higher for betting. It is lower for online casino. In the 2024 report, the regulator gave a range for online casino of around 72–82% depending on the method used. This points to a simple market picture: the main outflow of money comes not from betting, but specifically from the casino segment, where bonuses, game variety, and looser restrictions have a stronger influence.

The regulator separately identified the reasons why part of the audience moves outside the system:

better perceived odds;
stronger bonus offers;
access after exclusion through Spelpaus;
games that are not available on the Swedish market;
a higher stated RTP (return to player — the theoretical percentage returned to the player).

At the beginning of 2025, Spelinspektionen monitored traffic from Sweden to around 1,100 sites operated by more than 325 companies without a Swedish licence. The regulator had already considered more than 60 companies to be targeting Sweden. After ban decisions, traffic to prohibited sites fell by around 40% on average. This is a working effect. But it does not shut down the entire external market.

How This Affects Players and the Swedish Market

For a player in Sweden, the news changes not theory, but the practical choice of site. In the licensed segment, there are requirements for duty of care, self-control measures, identification, and restrictions on bonuses. External sites often offer an easier entry, broader promotions, more VIP options, and less friction in the first steps. That is why part of the audience compares not the brand, but the playing scenario: registration, deposit, limits, wagering, and withdrawal speed.

Spelinspektionen recorded an important gap. In terms of user numbers, the licensed market remains dominant: in 2024, around 96% of players gambled at least partly in the licensed competitive market. But in money terms, the licensed market share is lower, and in online casino it is noticeably weaker than in betting. In other words, most of the audience remains inside the system, but part of turnover goes into the external segment.

A separate factor is payment infrastructure. The report directly states that many external sites use SEPA payments, e-wallets, and instant banking, which outwardly resemble familiar payment solutions in the EU. For the user, the difference becomes less noticeable after just 2–3 clicks. The deposit goes through quickly. The interface looks standard. But the level of player protection and the dispute procedure are already different.

In practice, a player usually compares 5 parameters: promotion terms, the withdrawal limit over 24 hours, the KYC timeline, the list of available games, and the rules for repeated account verification. In this context, mentioning Vegazone bonus appears natural as part of a comparison of conditions if the goal is to compare numbers rather than look at an advertising banner. It is more useful to read the max cashout, wager, and the list of excluded games than a general slogan on the homepage.

What Really Changes for the Market

Parameter	Licensed site in Sweden	Site outside the Swedish licence
Bonuses	strictly limited	usually broader and more aggressive
Checks	mandatory	often lighter at entry
Self-exclusion	built into the regulated framework	may not work
Payments	transparent and clear	may look the same, but with different oversight
Complaints	there is a clear regulatory route	it is harder to bring a dispute back into a formal framework

Who Benefits and Why the Market Will Not Become Simpler

The benefits are distributed unevenly. The state and the regulator gain an additional argument for revising the scope of application and increasing control over unlicensed traffic. Large licensed operators get a chance to recover part of turnover if the rules against the grey segment are expanded. But this gain is not free. Its cost is higher spending on gambling tax, technical oversight, AML, behaviour monitoring, and internal control.

Mid-sized and smaller brands come under greater pressure. If an operator cannot sustain the cost of compliance, it cuts the bonus budget, game variety, and retention mechanics. Against this background, groups with scale, multiple markets, and access to a strong licence look more resilient, including Malta license. Providers of KYC, antifraud, and payment analytics also benefit separately.

The grey segment also retains room to operate:

it works through new domains;
it uses mirrors;
it moves into jurisdictions with weaker supervision;
it relies more often on affiliate sites and SEO traffic;
it continues to use structures such as Curacao license.

The conclusion for the market is simple. Stronger are the companies that know how to operate under expensive regulation. Weaker are those that relied on low entry costs and non-transparent conditions.

What Players in Sweden Should Do Now

According to Spelinspektionen’s official statistics, the GGR of the licensed market for 2024 amounted to SEK 27.848 billion, and SEK 3,325 per resident aged over 18. This is an important figure. It shows the scale of a market where any delay in payouts, any bonus dispute, and any new limit is quickly reflected in turnover worth millions of kronor. In addition, the Swedish regulator stated that around 38% of licensed companies’ turnover comes from apps. That means pure web traffic can underestimate the real share of the licensed segment.

In practice, checking a site takes 5–7 minutes. That is enough to avoid most mistakes. If access through Vegazone loginor any other site is quick, that is not yet a sign of quality. Fast login does not guarantee clear withdrawal rules. Check whether document verification timelines are specified, whether there is a daily cash-out limit, which types of games count towards wagering, and to what extent — 100%, 50%, or 0%.

Short Checklist Before Depositing

the licence and jurisdiction are stated immediately;
verification timelines are clear: 24 hours, 72 hours, or 7 days;
the withdrawal limit per day and per week is specified;
there is a max cashout and wagering requirement for the promotion;
the bonus abuse rules are visible before deposit;
self-exclusion tools and session limits are available.

Market Outlook and Adaptation of the Grey Segment

The trajectory is already visible. Sweden is moving towards stricter control. Europe is moving in the same direction. In Denmark, in June 2025, a court allowed the blocking of 178 illegal sites, and in total 616 domains had been blocked there since 2012. In Finland, in March 2025, the government introduced a reform opening betting and online casino to licensing from 2027. In Britain, the UK Gambling Commission in March 2025 limited wagering requirements to a maximum of x10 and banned mixed-product promotions, with the rules entering into force in January 2026.

For the player, this means one thing. Regulators are no longer debating the very existence of online casinos. They are redesigning the conditions of access, marketing, bonus mechanics, and risk control. For the operator, the conclusion is even harsher: there is less cheap traffic, and the cost of retention is rising. That is why black market gambling does not disappear. It becomes more flexible, quieter, and more technological.

Region	Measure	Practical effect
Sweden	stronger control over the unlicensed market	more supervision and checks
Denmark	178 blocks in a single case	access to grey traffic is cut off faster
Finland	transition to licensing	increased competition in Northern Europe
Britain	x10 cap on wagering	bonuses become simpler and leaner

Who Will Become Stronger

The stronger players will not be the most visible brands, but those that can endure a long regulatory cycle. This means sites with a licence, a clear payout procedure, stable compliance, and transparent conditions before deposit. These are the operators that preserve market share after tighter control. Models that relied on non-transparent bonuses, weak identification, and constant domain switching will lose resilience faster.

For the player, the practical conclusion sounds like this: compare not the storefront, but the procedure: how entry works, how limits are set, how long verification takes, what happens in a dispute, and what the withdrawal scenario looks like. Against this background, Vegazone review is relevant as part of a normal site check before making a choice. As a filter. The stricter the Swedish market becomes, the higher the value of sites where the rules can be read in 2 minutes and do not change after a win. It is convenient to keep the basic parameters for such a comparison at hand and also compare them through vegazonese.com.