Swedish government today approved opening a state run pokersite

[BigBlind]

The state run gambling authority "Svenska Spel" today got an approval from the swedish government to launch a pokersite. The government said their justification of the move is they want to have a a swedish regulated alternative to foreign gambling sites. It will lauch this spring.

Swedish Minister of Finance Bo Ringholm - "The foreign gambling sites are ruthless and there is need for a responsible alternative on the "wild west"-like gambling market of today.". He is referring to all foreign gambling sites (especially pokersites) that has been advertising a LOT in Sweden last couple of years.

My guess is the government probably don't like the fact a lot of swedish funds goes off shore instead of staying in Sweden.

As far as I understand the software will be made by Boss Media. More information will probably be released in the coming days. I have no idea if they have the skills to attract a lot of traffic but at least player funds will be safe (and taxfree for swedish players).

[KathleenStand]

This is amazing.

[PsYcHo-ScHnAuZeR]

Swedish players will be screwed. They will be forced to play at the Swedish site. Bye bye all those nice bonuses at other sites, guys. I feel sorry for ya. Hope it never happens here.

[BigBlind]

They don't have any legal means to force us to play there or to force us stop playing at foreign sites. It's a free country /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[lefty rosen]

I will miss my Swedish crackhead who caps ace 2 off preflop against my AA and then smashes for runner runner 22........... /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[TwoNiner]

I'd say generically Sweden is one of the last places I want the location tag to read on my online opponent. Now if New York opened up an online poker room it would be a freaking cash machine. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif Two sterotypically different levels of LAG opponents.

[IronDragon1]

Guess it's time to finish off those B2B bonuses.

[Gregatron]

Hopefully the rake will not be as high as Swedish taxes! Oh, and they let Americans play there (this I seriously doubt, but a guy can dream).

[Rudbaeck]

[ QUOTE ]
Swedish players will be screwed. They will be forced to play at the Swedish site.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, the EU so loves illegal trade barriers and is sure to let a member nation do that.

[PugX]

[ QUOTE ]
Swedish players will be screwed. They will be forced to play at the Swedish site.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, they will not.

[Eder]

This just allows their socialist gov to ensure they maximize poker players tax liability. I'm suprised our idiot Canadian gov didnt think of this 1st.

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]
This just allows their socialist gov to ensure they maximize poker players tax liability. I'm suprised our idiot Canadian gov didnt think of this 1st.

[/ QUOTE ]

Poker is taxfree here. It's just a way for them to make money via rake instead of privately owned companies doing it. We also have a state monopoly on gambling here so no companies are allowed to establish themselves here. Not that it matters for internet gaming since everyone can play on foreign sites.

[Duckstabber]

Interesting to see if the Danish gambling monopoly, Dansk Tipstjeneste, will do the same as Svenska Spel.

[Innocentius]

In earlier speculations about this, someone mentioned something about one of the conditions being that the site would only allow you to play one table at a time. Anyone heard anything more about this?

[KINGOFINLAND]

I read somewhere players must give an amount of how much they can lose before beginning to play there, correct?
Is this like everytime before a session or only the first time you start so when you have lost the amount you can't play there anymore?

Seems like a good way to keep the donks away.

[Iq75]

I’m pretty sure that their rake will be really high and there will be no bonuses (not even a first deposit bonus).

[PsYcHo-ScHnAuZeR]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Swedish players will be screwed. They will be forced to play at the Swedish site.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, they will not.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not at first blush. But once the government is in the business of poker they will want to grow and dominate it, and they can use the full force of the government and the enforcement of laws to get their way. Give it a year, and to play at a foreign site will get the authorities on your back. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Rudbaeck]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Swedish players will be screwed. They will be forced to play at the Swedish site.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, they will not.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not at first blush. But once the government is in the business of poker they will want to grow and dominate it, and they can use the full force of the government and the enforcement of laws to get their way. Give it a year, and to play at a foreign site will get the authorities on your back.

[/ QUOTE ]

We'd have to leave the European Union to be able to achieve that. The EU is really, really big on the internal free trade agreements, and hates trade barriers (internal that is) with a vengeance.

[Rudbaeck]

[ QUOTE ]
I’m pretty sure that their rake will be really high and there will be no bonuses (not even a first deposit bonus).

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually Svenska Spel currently has first deposit bonuses on most of their online game, including a few no-deposit bonuses. And due to them having a monopoly they run more aggressive commercials than would even be legal in say the UK. (Apparently they do this to protect the population from gambling.)

Your probably right about the rake, it will look something like Party Poker I am sure.

[BigBlind]

[ QUOTE ]
Give it a year, and to play at a foreign site will get the authorities on your back. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

You wanna bet. I can lay you some pretty nice odds. You seem to have a twisted view about Sweden and what the authorities can and can't do. This is not China /images/graemlins/wink.gif. I actually believe a ban on playing foreign sites would sooner happen in U.S than in any of the Scandinavian countries. The swedish authorities as Rudebaeck already said can't do anything about swedish pokerplayers playing foreign sites as long as we are a member of EU.

The gambling authority "Svenska Spel" is not regarded very high among swedish pokerplayers and punters so they will have to come up with something really good to get the majority of swedish pokerplayers to get an account there.

My current view of their eventual success is quite pessimistic. They might regulate their site to much (just being able to play 1 table, not allow foreigners, put a cap on daily losses, cap on hours played per day etc). They haven't yet made public any details about this. I guess we'll just have to wait until march and se what they come up with.

[Rudbaeck]

[ QUOTE ]
I actually believe a ban on playing foreign sites would sooner happen in U.S than in any of the Scandinavian countries.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even during our most socialist years we weren't as isolationist as the US is a normal year. We like foreign trade. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Ron Burgundy]

I heard that Swedish men have really big penises.

[BigBlind]

[ QUOTE ]
I heard that Swedish men have really big penises.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup we have. Seems like you even have have some experiences of it /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Jimbo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I actually believe a ban on playing foreign sites would sooner happen in U.S than in any of the Scandinavian countries.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even during our most socialist years we weren't as isolationist as the US is a normal year. We like foreign trade. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

In 2004 the US trade deficit with Sweden was -$9,421,472,000

You don't like trade all that much. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[TimsterToo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I actually believe a ban on playing foreign sites would sooner happen in U.S than in any of the Scandinavian countries.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even during our most socialist years we weren't as isolationist as the US is a normal year. We like foreign trade. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

In 2004 the US trade deficit with Sweden was -$9,421,472

You don't like trade all that much. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I've heard that the Chinese love trading, how much is your trade deficit with them in 2004? /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[Jimbo]

[ QUOTE ]
I've heard that the Chinese love trading, how much is your trade deficit with them in 2004?

[/ QUOTE ]

-$161,977,969,000 but less thsn Sweden on a per capita basis.

Jimbo

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I actually believe a ban on playing foreign sites would sooner happen in U.S than in any of the Scandinavian countries.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even during our most socialist years we weren't as isolationist as the US is a normal year. We like foreign trade. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

In 2004 the US trade deficit with Sweden was -$9,421,472,000

You don't like trade all that much. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

We like selling more than buying. Selling is still trade. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I think the trade deficit is even larger now since the dollar has increased in value compared to the swedish Krona.

[bjarne]

Good thing about the Swdish site is that we swedish players can play there while being certain our money is safe and will have much cheaper and faster transactions of money to and from our accounts.

On the down side one has to wonder whether or not it will be worth playing there. First of all, Svenska Spel only allows Swedes to play on their sites. Although lots of Swedes are playing, we are a small country and it is uncertain there will be lots of tables going. Secondly, I wouldn't be surprised if the Swedish government will enforce some stupid rules to "protect" people from gambling too much, like maximizing the number of hands you can play each week. Also, I suspect the games will all be nano/microlimit.

[BigBlind]

It's been a couple of months since the last post in this thread. A little update.

The site goes live this Thursday.

* The rake will be 2.5% (nice to get an immediate 50% rakeback) /images/graemlins/grin.gif

* Maximum allowed loss per pot is 78.900SEK (About $10K). Should be enough for everyone except the hard core high rollers.

* You must decide beforehand what your stop loss will be. Just set it at max and you should be fine.

* The sofware is made by Boss Media /images/graemlins/confused.gif

* You must decide beforehand how much time you will play. Just set it at max and you should be fine.

* It will be closed between 3am-7am local time. /images/graemlins/mad.gif

* All winnings are taxfree /images/graemlins/wink.gif

* Only swedish citizens are allowed to play (need a swedsih social security number to play) /images/graemlins/mad.gif

The reason they have all limitations is to curb persons with gambling addictions as much as possible.

I really don't like the fact that only swedes will be allowed to play but Svenska Spel have voiced their intent to hook up with other EU-countries gambling authorities to make a possible network in the future. I really hope this happens.

I also hope the 2.5% max rake can put some pressure on other sites. I don't believe this will happen unless this site picks up a lot of traffic and becomes a EU-wide network. Who knows. This might happen sooner than later.

I'll give it a try this weekend to see what it's all about.

[BigBlind]

Forgot to mention that one will be able to play 5 tables at a time and that the rake is capped at 20SEK (about $2.6)

[villafan]

They should get together with Norsk Tipping and the danish gambling monopoly and have a platform for the scandinavian players. That would probably put a lot of pressure on the rake at B2B network, Prima (Nordicbet) and Expekt (Tain).

[Mike Moon]

[ QUOTE ]
In earlier speculations about this, someone mentioned something about one of the conditions being that the site would only allow you to play one table at a time. Anyone heard anything more about this?

[/ QUOTE ]

It will be possible to 5-table.

[Mike Moon]

[ QUOTE ]
I’m pretty sure that their rake will be really high and there will be no bonuses (not even a first deposit bonus).

[/ QUOTE ]

Low rake

No bonus

[Iq75]

I'm really suprised that the rake will be so lo (for microlimits at least). I assume that they take more in any other game that they promote.

It's also too bad that they dont allow people that dont live in Sweden. The networking thing would be nice, but it will take time if happens at all. If i recall correctly the finnish Oy Veikkaus Ab decided recently that they will not launch a poker site. I hope that PAF (the ålands gaming authority) decides to ditch the poker room network and join forces with Svenka Spel, cause they take finnish players.

It is very interesting to see, how this effeckts to the amount of players. I assume, thet poker used to be somewhat shady to the avarage "Svensson" with the tax haven companies and credit cards and so on. Now that the coverment offers the games, it will be accepted more widely. It also makes the tax issue totally clear (with foreign companies it's kind of hard to tell wich site is located in what country). Not to mention that people will feel that their money will be safe in state run company.

I know that Swedes are better players than avarage, but this could bring a lot more fish to the pond in the near future for those who can play at that site. Oh well, i hope that it will be a fishtank, so that the swedish sharks just play over there (as opposite in my tables /images/graemlins/wink.gif).

[Iq75]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I’m pretty sure that their rake will be really high and there will be no bonuses (not even a first deposit bonus).

[/ QUOTE ]

Low rake

No bonus

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, i was just typing my comments at the same time you posted this.

IMO the rake there will be so low that it will more than compensate the absence of bonuses (my previous post that you quated is like 3 months old).

[Mike Moon]

yup, it´s worth trying out, thou I don´t think I will be their most loyal customer...interesting to see how many frequent players there will be, I´m sure there will be alot of beginners there from time to time.

/M

[MrEngenic]

2.5 % rake and tax free. I like it already but will there be any traffic?
What's with that stupid 3am -7am thing?

[Daysleeper]

How does the stop loss works. Asuming I have 3k at the table and a stop loss at 1k can I only lose 1k of the 3k? Seems very weird.

Also swedish government is a bunch of hypocrites.

[bobbyi]

[ QUOTE ]
How does the stop loss works. Asuming I have 3k at the table and a stop loss at 1k can I only lose 1k of the 3k?

[/ QUOTE ]
I would assume that if your stop loss is 1k, they wouldn't let you buy in for 3k. If your daily stop loss is 1k but you had more than that in your account, it probably would just treat it as if your balance were 1k (so once you lost that, you couldn't buy any more chips until the next day). This isn't hard to implement.

[Daysleeper]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How does the stop loss works. Asuming I have 3k at the table and a stop loss at 1k can I only lose 1k of the 3k?

[/ QUOTE ]
I would assume that if your stop loss is 1k, they wouldn't let you buy in for 3k. If your daily stop loss is 1k but you had more than that in your account, it probably would just treat it as if your balance were 1k (so once you lost that, you couldn't buy any more chips until the next day). This isn't hard to implement.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well they can't really stop me from buying in for my stop loss and doubling upp right? That was kinda the scenario I was refering to

[bobbyi]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How does the stop loss works. Asuming I have 3k at the table and a stop loss at 1k can I only lose 1k of the 3k?

[/ QUOTE ]
I would assume that if your stop loss is 1k, they wouldn't let you buy in for 3k. If your daily stop loss is 1k but you had more than that in your account, it probably would just treat it as if your balance were 1k (so once you lost that, you couldn't buy any more chips until the next day). This isn't hard to implement.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well they can't really stop me from buying in for my stop loss and doubling upp right?

[/ QUOTE ]
So what? Why would they want to stop from you doing that? The casino closes at night, so even if you double up, you are going to have to reset the next day. If you can't buy in for more than your stop loss in a given day, you can't lose more than your stop loss in a given day. This should be obvious.

[Gildwulf]

Svenska Spel software development team (http://farm.tucows.com/2004/12/swedish_chef.jpg)

[bobbyi]

I don't understand the rationale behind only opening it to Swedish citizens. I can sort of understand the concerns they would have about allowing Americans to play, but why not at least have it open to all of Europe? It seems like they would make more money with no downside.