Sweden gambling licence: requirements, fees, timing and register check

Quick facts

What does a Swedish licence cover, and what does it not?

A Spelinspektionen licence is a market licence: it is what an operator needs to offer gambling to players in Sweden, wherever the company sits. Offering licensable gambling to Swedish players without one is unlawful. It gives no rights anywhere else, and Great Britain requires a UK Gambling Commission licence whatever else the operator holds.

The licence also binds the supply chain. A software supplier with a Swedish permit may not supply anyone who lacks the necessary Swedish licence, and a licensee may use only software from permit holders (Spellag, 11 kap. 6 e § and 16 kap. 1 a §).

Which licence do you need?

• Commercial online gaming (kommersiellt onlinespel, B2C). Casino games, online bingo and computer-simulated slot games (7 kap. 1 §).
• Betting (vadhållning, B2C). Sports and other betting (8 kap.). Most operators hold both B2C licences.
• Gambling software permit (tillstånd för spelprogramvara, B2B). Required since 1 July 2023 for anyone who manufactures, supplies, installs or modifies gambling software used for online gaming or betting in Sweden (11 kap. 6 a §).

A licence cannot be transferred to another legal person, even within the same group; a new entity needs its own licence (Spelinspektionen Q&A).

What does a Swedish licence cost in regulator fees?

Application fees are set in the Gambling Ordinance; annual supervision fees in Spelinspektionen's SIFS 2026:1, in force from 1 March 2026.

• One application fee, two supervision fees. Spelinspektionen charges a single SEK 230,000 when both B2C licences are applied for at the same time (fee page), but the supervision fee is due for each licence held and is invoiced in advance.
• Older figures still circulate. SEK 400,000 per licence and SEK 700,000 for both were the application fees until 30 June 2023 (SFS 2023:277).
• Renewal is a new application at the full fee.
• No revenue-based charge. The Gambling Act allows fees only for licences, permits, registration and supervision (20 kap. 1 §); the supervision fee is a fixed amount.

How is gambling taxed in Sweden?

Licensees pay gambling tax of 22% of the behållning for each calendar month (Lag om skatt på spel, 8 and 9 §§). The behållning is stakes received less winnings paid out. It is close to gross gaming revenue, but the statutory definition is the one that counts, so a GGR figure from another market cannot be reused without checking what it includes. Corporate tax and VAT are outside this page.

How long does a Swedish licence take?

The Gambling Act sets no deadline for deciding a licence application. The general rule applies: if a case has not been decided six months after it was opened, the applicant may ask in writing for a decision, and the authority must then, within four weeks, either decide the case or refuse the request in a separate decision (Förvaltningslag, 12 §). Timelines you are quoted are estimates.

Does Sweden require a local company or capital?

• No Swedish company. A licensee or permit holder with no residence or establishment in the EEA must have a natural-person representative resident in Sweden (Spellag 4 kap. 4 §; 11 kap. 6 c § for software).
• No statutory minimum capital. Spelinspektionen expects an applicant to have sufficient financial resources to run the business (how to apply).
• Ownership changes are reviewed. Because a licence cannot move between legal persons, groups restructuring around Sweden have to plan for a new application rather than a transfer.

Which rules catch operators most often?

• Bonus only once. A licensee may offer or give a bonus only on the first occasion a player plays on any of its games (14 kap. 9 §). Spelinspektionen's guidance lists court rulings on what counts as a bonus, including VIP offers, loyalty programmes, free play and free spins.
• No gambling on credit. The extended credit ban took effect on 1 May 2026 and covers every kind of credit, not only cards (Spelinspektionen; 14 kap. 8 §).
• Spelpaus checks. Every licensee must check the national self-exclusion register at registration, at every login and before direct marketing. Since 1 August 2026 a platform provider running the check must use the licensee's own credentials, not a shared one (SIFS 2026:3, 4 §).
• Licensed software only. Suppliers without a Swedish permit cannot serve the Swedish market, and permit holders cannot serve unlicensed operators.

How do you verify a Swedish licence?

1. Search the Spelinspektionen licence register by company name.
2. Check the licence type (online gaming, betting or software), the valid-from and valid-to dates and the status.
3. Compare the website you are checking with the game sites listed for that licence holder.
4. Remember what the register cannot tell you: whether the same company may serve players outside Sweden.

How does Sweden compare with other licences?

What this page does not cover yet

Duty-of-care and deposit-limit rules, technical requirements, AML duties and advertising rules. Spelinspektionen consulted on new responsible-gambling and technical regulations in 2026; they are added once adopted and reviewed.

Sources

• Spellag (2018:1138) and Spelförordning (2018:1475): licence types, term, fees, representative, Spelpaus, bonus and supply rules, read 27 October 2026.
• Lag (2018:1139) om skatt på spel: 22% gambling tax, read 27 October 2026.
• SIFS 2026:1 (supervision fees) and SIFS 2026:3 (Spelpaus), read 27 October 2026.
• Spelinspektionen: application fees, how to apply, questions and answers, read 27 October 2026; credit ban, read 19 September 2026.
• SFS 2023:277 and Förvaltningslag (2017:900), read 27 October 2026.
• Licence register, read 27 October 2026.

Next review: monthly, and when the 2027 budget bill or new Spelinspektionen regulations are published. Found an error? Report a correction.