Further to our recent report on the approval of the Swedish government for state-owned Svenska Spel to enter the online poker sector powered by Boss Media, further details are now to hand.
The Scandinavian press report that the decision to approve Svenska Spel instead of a private company to introduce online poker operations was based on an opinion that Svenska would be less likely to be driven by excessive profit motives and more amenable to government pressures and influence.
It has been reported that Svenska Spel estimates indicate that the organisation is confident that it will be able to corner at least a third of the 1 billion kronor (US$124 million) Swedish market within a year.
The approval has a two-year trial caveat that comes with specific conditions: The minimum age for accepting any gambling action is 18; marketing will only be allowed in newspapers and on the Internet and Swedish players will only be allowed to gamble after having defined a specific limit on how much they want to stake in each session. Current proposals have set the maximum limit in this regard at 79,400 kronor (approx US$10,000).