Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority, has informed licences that they must ensure an outright ban on all forms of credit transactions for gambling.
The inspectorate announced that a definitive enforcement of the full ban on credit transactions will be adopted as of 1 April 2026, and applied across all forms of gambling.
The enforcement will see the Swedish government complete one of the key reforms of its revisions of the Swedish Gambling Act of 2018. As such, gambling licences will no longer be able to process transactions that originate from credit cards, loans, overdrafts and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) schemes.
To ensure compliance, gambling operators will be required to test and audit their payment processing systems and to take reasonable, risk-based preventive actions to ensure that customer funds are not sourced from credit facilities.
Duties include excluding credit cards as payment options, implementing real-time payment monitoring tools, refusing transactions when they have knowledge or indicators of credit use, and applying the “duty of care” in cases where a player exhibits signs of risky financial behaviour.
Big creep on credit
Spelinspektionen will serve as the primary authority responsible for enforcing the new credit ban, working in coordination with other relevant agencies.
Finansinspektionen, the Financial Supervisory Authority, will play a key role in overseeing credit institutions and payment service providers. Konsumentverket, the Swedish Consumer Agency, is also involved, particularly in matters concerning gambling-related marketing, responsible gambling standards, and broader consumer protection obligations.
While operators will not be expected to carry out invasive investigations into players’ financial circumstances, they will be required to act whenever there are clear signs that credit-based funds are being used. Such indicators might include disclosures made by the player, transactions flagged through internal monitoring systems, or financial records obtained through Know Your Customer (KYC) or anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.
Policy evolution of credit ban
The Gambling Act of 2018, prohibited the use of credit card transactions, a measure introduced at the re-launch of Sweden gambling market of 2019. Yet the measure was increasingly criticised for being insufficient, with growing concern that it left the door open to credit-funded gambling through indirect means.
A significant policy shift occurred following the publication of SOU 2023:38, a government-commissioned inquiry into risky credit use and over-indebtedness, known as the Överskuldsättningsutredningen.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Finance, the report made clear that there was a strong link between gambling-related debt and long-term financial harm. It concluded that only a full ban on all forms of credit-funded gambling could provide meaningful consumer protection.
These conclusions echoed earlier recommendations from the Spelmarknadsutredningen, the Gambling Market Inquiry, which called for stricter controls on advertising, improved oversight, and stronger safeguards against the risks posed by unlicensed operators.
High compliance test for licences
Sweden’s licensed gambling industry, represented by trade associations such as Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), has broadly accepted the purpose of the new rules and expressed a commitment to comply.
Nonetheless, industry voices have raised concerns over the considerable technical difficulties involved in fully implementing the ban. Among the main challenges cited are the complexities of distinguishing between debit and credit card transactions in real time, the difficulty of identifying funds that originate from loans or overdraft facilities once they have been transferred to a customer’s bank account, and the operational burden of managing compliance across a wide range of payment channels, including mobile apps and e-wallets.
BOS has also argued that the responsibility for blocking credit-based payments should rest more heavily on the financial institutions that issue the credit, rather than being placed solely on gambling operators. The association warns that excessive compliance burdens on licensed firms may unintentionally drive more players toward unregulated gambling websites.
Era of new enforcement & penalties
To support enforcement, Spelinspektionen will be granted expanded powers to impose legal and administrative sanctions. Operators that are found to be in breach of the new credit ban, whether by enabling or ignoring credit-funded gambling activity, may face financial penalties, temporary suspensions, or even the loss of their licence. Additionally, the regulator has indicated that transparency will be a priority, with increased reporting requirements and public oversight once the ban is in force.
The credit ban forms part of a wider initiative by the Swedish Ministry of Finance to curb the problematic use of consumer credit in high-risk sectors. In particular, the ministry has identified gambling, short-term loans, and certain digital marketplaces as areas where credit misuse can escalate quickly and contribute to long-term debt cycles. Minister for Financial Markets Niklas Wykman has stated that the government’s objective is to prevent over-indebtedness, reinforce consumer protection, and ensure a clearer separation between entertainment and financial risk.
2026: Year of regulatory order
2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal period of regulatory transformation for Sweden’s gambling governance. Alongside the credit ban, Spelinspektionen will receive broader enforcement powers, enabling the agency to issue higher penalties and sanctions for non-compliance with gambling laws.
In new developments, the Riksdag will vote on a new set of recommendations introduced by Consumer Affairs Commissioner Marcus Isgren, which seek to amend key provisions in the Gambling Act related to the definition of illegal participation.
Isgren’s proposed changes would allow Swedish authorities to enforce penalties not just based on a gambling operator’s intent to target Swedish consumers, but based on “actual participation” by a Swedish user — meaning that unlicensed services used by national consumers could fall under Swedish legal jurisdiction, even if operated abroad. The shift in interpretation is seen as a crucial step in strengthening enforcement against unregulated gambling sites.
The proposals have been welcomed by both BOS and licensed operators, who view them as long-overdue tools to improve channelisation and to halt the growing encroachment of the black market. If adopted, these changes would significantly enhance Sweden’s ability to police the gambling ecosystem and protect vulnerable players.
