Sweden is just unable, and perhaps more likely unwilling, to get on the European Commission’s good side when it comes to online gambling. The Commission has called out Sweden on it constantly over the years; finally the Commission is positively, truly, doing something about it. On Thursday, the Commission began legal action against the Scandinavian country, referring it to the European Union’s Court of Justice (not to be confused with the Hall of Justice, the home of the Super Friends) for its lack of compliance with the EU’s online gambling regulations.
The Commission took issue with Sweden’s online gambling restrictions, believing they were not “compatible” with the “free movement of services” in the European Union. “The Commission found that the restrictive policy in the area of gambling services is not applied in a systematic and consistent manner and that the holder of the exclusive right is not subject to strict state control,” the press release said.
Currently, there is one state-run online poker site in Sweden, Svenska Spel. PokerScout currently has it ranked as the 16th largest poker room or network on the internet with a seven-day average of 575 cash game players.
This is the second time in a week that Sweden has drawn attention in the online poker world. Recently it was revealed that the Swedish Tax Authority, Skatteverket, has been using public internet resources such as message boards and poker data mining sites to gather information on Swedish online poker players who have avoided paying taxes. European Union tax law states that players do not have to pay taxes on winnings from any poker site that is located in the EU, but are subject to a steep 30 percent tax rate on winnings from outside the EU.
Many top online poker players are well known in the internet community and frequently post about their successes and failures on poker message boards. They also willingly allow their records to be documented on sites such as highstakesdb.com (cash games) and pocketfives.com (tournaments). Put it all together, along with other sources for sleuthing, and it is not hard to approximate how much money some players have won. So far, the Tax Authority has found about 50 players who have unreported gambling winnings of 250 million Kronor, or around $34.6 million.