Sweden's Laws on Online Casino Site Promo Upheld

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The European Court of Justice recently ruled that Sweden may restrict the promotion of online gambling sites within the country. This ruling is being viewed as a setback for those who would like to see the full legalization of online gaming. In the same ruling, however, the Court stated that the Swedish Government may not impose stricter sanctions on the promotion of online gambling that is organized outside of Sweden.

The ruling was made involving the case of the Swedish Government versus the editors and publishers of the Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet and Expressen. In 2004, the two newspapers ran advertisements for online sports betting in their sports pages. The advertisements were all for online betting companies based outside of Sweden. The Swedish Court ruled that these advertisements were in violation of Swedish gambling law. The publishers of the newspapers were fined 50,000 Swedish crowns (approximately £4,370). They appealed against the ruling and the Swedish Appeals Court referred the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The ECJ upheld the Swedish ruling on the grounds of public order.

The ECJ recognized that Swedish law bans the promotion of unlicensed gambling inside Sweden, as well as legal organized gambling in other EU countries. It ruled that such restrictions were recognized and accepted by EU law on the grounds of public health or public security, as long as the fines were considered to be in proportion to the offense. The ECJ warned that if the penalties in Sweden were harsher that in other EU states then this would be considered discriminatory and in breach of EU law.

Following the ruling by the ECJ, the secretary general of the European Gaming and Betting Association stated: "It is up to the legislator to embrace the reality of online gaming and betting in Europe. Italy, France and the UK have introduced online gaming legislation and Denmark is set to follow suit in 2011."

The European Lotteries currently represents forty national lottery monopolies. Friedrich Stickler, president of the European Lotteries stated: "The court has given full backing to the gambling model we stand for, a model from which the whole of society benefits."

There are reports that the European Court of Justice is currently examining the market practices of Svenska Spel. Svenska Spel is a Swedish gaming company that holds a monopoly in the industry. The company was recently ranked worst in terms of betting returns out of all European online gaming monopolies.

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