The Swedish government, Regeringskansliet, has published its budget bill for 2024 which includes a proposed tax hike for the gambling industry.
According to the budget bill, which was published this week, the government proposes increasing the country’s current gambling tax rate of 18% to 22%. The new tax rate would come into force on July 1st 2024 and is expected to generate an additional SEK 540m ($48.2 million/€45.3 million) per year.
The proposal states:
“The current tax rate of 18 per cent has applied since the Swedish gambling market was re-regulated in 2019. The gambling market has since stabilised and channelisation has increased significantly. In addition, measures have been taken to exclude unlicensed gambling from the Swedish market, which entered into force on 1 July 2023.
The reasons for caution in setting the tax level should thus not be as strong now as at the time of the reregulation. An increase from 18 to, against this background, 22 per cent is judged to be at a suitable level to reinforce the financing of government activities, without it leading to too great an impact on the companies and the size of the tax base. The excise duty on gambling should therefore be increased from 18 to 22 per cent.”
However, the proposal has been met with criticism from the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling – Branschföreningen för Onlinespel.
BOS Secretary General Gustaf Hoffstedt commented:
“The announcement from the government is deeply disappointing, above all because it shows that the government does not understand or has taken to heart what kind of market it is set to govern. Even less has the government understood the vulnerable position that market is in.
We were recently able to show that channelization in the Swedish gambling market is 77 percent. Some gambling verticals, including online casino, are as low as 72 percent. The trend is also declining, in other words the channeling decreases over time.
We are already far from the state’s goal of at least 90 percent channelization, and if this tax increase is approved by the Riksdag, we will soon be down to the channelization we had before Sweden reregulated its gambling market in 2019. A reregulation that took place because Sweden had such a low channelization at the time.”
The proposal must now be introduced to the Riksdag for approval in the spring of next year.
In its latest financial report Sweden’s gambling authority, Spelinspektionen, revealed that gambling operators generated SEK 6.7 billion ($602.8 million/€562.8 million) in Q2 of 2023. Of that figure, 62.4% was generated by the online gambling industry.
Gambling industry journalist with a background in online poker and trading. Covering the regulated U.S Sports industry and the exciting world of online poker.