Update on the swedish governmental run pokersite

[BigBlind]

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Wow, I really wish I could play there. It must be like the B2B network before the bonus whores took over. Fishtastic!

Are gambling winnings taxed in Sweden?

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Yes, it was quite fishy the last couple of times I played there. Hope it stays that way. It seems many people that were earlier reluctant to plunk down money on "unregulated foreign sites" are now signing up in droves. They feel safe putting in money at Svenska Spel. So yes, a lot of new fresh blood is coming in making the games good.

Gambling winnings on this particular site are taxfree for swedes as are all winnings from other online poker rooms, sportsbetting sites or lotteries, located within EU/EES. If the room is located outside EU/EES we have to pay 30% tax on our winnings.

PS and other big online poker rooms not located within EU/EES should consider a move to europe. I know for a fact that many players over here have abandonded online poker rooms not located within EU/EES because of the tax situation. This goes for players from a couple of other european countries aswell since they have similar tax rules. I belive a lot of poker rooms is missing out on a lot of $$ because of this.

[OneBigRed]

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It would be enough to summon the Scandinavian countries to make a major online poker room. Guess, we’ll have to wait and see.


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That would be cool, but the finnish counterpart of SS, RAY, isn't interested in making an online pokerroom. Mostly because they're afraid that it would raise questions about their monopoly of casino games in Finland (competing and not allowing competition). They are also the only company that would be allowed to make a finnish pokerroom, so we are out of luck.

In Finland online poker is'nt taxed, if the pokerroom is in EU. So that's one good thing going for us.

[BigBlind]

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When I logged in earlier today there where 6.500 logged on.

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would be interested in knowing how many real money cash tables are active right now. that way you could compare this to the #'s on pokersitescout. "logged on" players by itself doesn't tell you all that much

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Right now there are 3.600 players logged on.
85 Full ring games
282 SH (5-handed tables).

If one counts every 10-handed game as having an average of 8 players we get 722 players. If every shorthanded tables counts as 4 players we get 1128.

The total is 1850 cash game players. Just a little bit more than half of the 3.600 logged on.

There were an additional 108 SNG's running and 500 players involved in MTT's. I guess this category doesn't count in the pokersitescout numbers, right?. So I'll leave them out of the calculations for now.

Yesterday there were 6.500 logged on as most. Using the numbers above about 3.300 of them were cash game players.

Looking at the pokersitescout peak numbers from the last 24hrs this would put Svenska Spel on par with Paradise, Cryptologic and Prima. Only Party, PS, Ongame and FT are ahead. If Svenska Spel continues to grow like it has the last couple of months they will pull ahead Ongame and FT in two or three months for a 3:rd place.

[Tom Bayes]

What do you think Svenska Spel will do to the traffic at the B2B Network? I used to play a lot of B2B (I pulled out my money since they are scared of the USDOJ and banished Americans) and Swedish players are the most common nationality at B2B.

And just out of curoisity, what games are spread at Svenska Spel? Is it all NLHE and PLO? Are games like limit holdem, omaha/8, stud, stud/8 offered? Do they offer niche games like draw or soko? If so, does anyone play?

[6471849653]

In Finland or not, I think it (gambling) will be taxed if one wins enough (can be considered professional, especially if that's what one up to mostly does); the exceptions rate to be the UK and some other places.

Playing in a governmental run poker site will sure tell them one plays poker and how one does, possibly even if one is not living or whatever in that country.

The 2.5% is a sort of nice (though one may pay less and a government - especially as it has money - taking that much can be considered stealing) but in case of taxes it needs to be worth it - also considering that non-EU places still rate to be taxed - and in my case at the moment, it isn't.

I think one can trust the site to be honest, that's very good, and that it will be a good site, though not sure what they will think about (more automatic) tracking.

[BigBlind]

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What do you think Svenska Spel will do to the traffic at the B2B Network? I used to play a lot of B2B (I pulled out my money since they are scared of the USDOJ and banished Americans) and Swedish players are the most common nationality at B2B.

And just out of curoisity, what games are spread at Svenska Spel? Is it all NLHE and PLO? Are games like limit holdem, omaha/8, stud, stud/8 offered? Do they offer niche games like draw or soko? If so, does anyone play?

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As far as I can see Svenska Spel has already done quite some harm to B2B and I'm sure will do even more down the line. The numbers at B2B seems to go down every month. Partly because of Svenska Spel and also because at least one big B2B-skin chosing another network.

As to games, most are NL. When I looked it up earlier today 303 out of 367 games were NL or PL (277 NLHE).

Games spread are:
Holdem NL PL FL
Omaha High FL PL
Omaha 8/0 FL PL
5 and 7-card stud FL
Draw FL PL

[professormike]

I downloaded it to check out, but quickly realized that I don't understand any swedish.

[6471849653]

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Poker on the Internet
Svenska Spel received the permission from the Swedish Government in November 2005 to launch Internet Poker in its own jurisdiction. The goal is to transfer existing Internet poker players from the unregulated market to the regulated market.

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My mistake; it's not a governmental (run) pokersite.

[D.H.]

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B2B seems to go down every month. Partly because of Svenska Spel and also because at least one big B2B-skin chosing another network.

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B2B has actually gone up over the last 10 days or so. Probably thanks to their new cashback (rakeback) program and a few new partners.

[Capitola]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Svenska Spel on the International Poker Network, i.e. Boss Media? They are listed that way on pokersitescout, and there's this article that seems to say so.

So the player counts you're talking about are really for the whole network, aren't they?