Sweden Implements SEK5,000 Weekly Bet Limit

This week Sweden's government has announced that they're implementing a series of measures to temporarily restrict online betting activities, including a SEK5,000 weekly deposit limit for punters.

The Minister for Health and Social Affairs Ardalan Shekarabi also said he was also proposing a temporary SEK100 cap on bonus offers until the end of the year, as the country battles the Covid-19 pandemic. Also under consideration are limits on RTP numbers, blocking games that fall under a certain number. In addition to online betting, the proposed changes will affect the country's video lottery terminals and would run through the end of December.

As expected, the potential moves aren't popular in the betting industry, who says that it'll cost operators money and drive punters offshore. Gustaf Hoffstedt, the Secretary General of the Branschföreningen för Onlinespel commented: "I am very concerned over the fact that this will accelerate the leakage from the Swedish licensing system to unlicensed sites. We already have a problematic level of approximately 25% leakage when it comes to online casino, and with these governmental measures it will only get worse."

We'll be following this story and updating readers as we learn more.