Government proposes to increase gambling taxes in Sweden

Added: September 22, 2023

The government of Sweden has recently introduced a new proposal to raise the country’s gambling taxes.

The proposed increase would raise the country’s gambling taxes by 4%, going from 18% of a licensed operator’s revenue to 22%. The proposal cites the stabilization of the country’s gambling market when compared to its performance in its early days as the reason for the increase, mentioning that the government initially was aiming for a tax rate of 20% but chose 18% to help the market achieve its target channelization rate.

The proposal was met with quite a bit of criticism from local gambling industry companies and organizations, like the industry association BOS. The latter published a response to the proposal, stating that an increase in taxes would inhibit the market’s progress. The organization’s Secretary General, Gustaf Hoffstedt, mentioned in the response that the market has not been able to achieve its target channelization rate of 90%, only managing an average of 77% so far.

Additionally, Hoffstedt mentioned that a few gambling verticals are lagging behind the country’s average, such as online casinos, which have a channelization rate of only 72%. The response also mentioned that in addition to being behind its target, the market is also trending backward in terms of channelization, slowly decreasing over time.

BOS, Sweden