Sweden gambling sites & apps 2025

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Sweden has got many of the world’s biggest gambling sites operating inside their borders, with these including brands like bet365, 888Sports and 10Bet. The Swedish gambling market is well-regulated and is a safe place to play online casino games, bet on sports, participate in lotteries, bingo and even visit land-based gambling venues. In Sweden, to access gambling sites and apps you must be 18 years or older, but to visit the land-based casinos the requirement is 20. Below we will give you a clear concise overview of the online gambling industry in Sweden, local laws surrounding real money casinos and sports betting, a historical look at Sweden and gambling, online gambling payments and back room stuff and plenty more. 

Top online gambling sites in Sweden

Sweden gambling sites must be licensed by the Spelinspektionen (the Swedish Gambling Authority), and follow their mandate, which includes licensing and supervision, marketing guidelines and the enforcement of these. 

Technically for Swedish gamblers it is not illegal to register and play at offshore online casinos or betting sites, and players won’t get in trouble, but it is the operators themselves that are breaking the law and they can face enforcement action. 

For instance, gambling sites like NordicBet hold a Spelinspektionen license and are legally able to accept players in Sweden, including having the ability to market to them legally. Other sites, based in places like Curacao or Costa Rica, will accept Swedes but are technically breaking the law. This murky nature of online gambling is mirrored in many other places that have regulated in the industry, but have struggled to keep it inside their own country. 

Online gambling sites in Sweden give you access to thousands of real money casino games, sports betting, lottery-style draws, online poker and even horse racing. The most popular casino games in Sweden include online slots, real money poker (Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Video Poker), live dealer games like blackjack and roulette and various others. 

Funding gambling sites in Sweden is done purely with Swedish Krona (SEK) and the payment types available will be familiar, with options like Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Apple Pay and Swish, which is a local mobile money transfer option, very popular. Another cool payment type at Swedish gambling sites is Trustly, which is a Pay N Play-style bank transfer. 

Sweden’s gambling gambling sites will generally have customer service available in both English and Swedish, although we known of at least two operators (that we don’t endorse), that our local spies tell us barely speak a word of the local language. 

Real money gambling games & guides

Sweden has a legal and diverse real money gambling industry, with this encompassing various forms of online wagering, land-based gambling and horse racing.

Real money gambling guides Sweden

Gambling Guides

Online casinos are regulated in Sweden. Use our gambling guides to find your way through the process of playing real money casino and virtual games.

Online poker in Sweden

Online Poker

Poker is popular in Sweden, with Martin Jacobson (2014 WSOP Main Event winner) regarded as their greatest player. Online poker in Sweden is legal and licensed.

Casino games available in Sweden

Casino Games & Rules

Are you a beginner to online gambling? Check out our casino games and rules guides to get started. Most casino games are available at Sweden’s gambling sites

Sports betting in Sweden

Sports gambling

Swedes love football, harness racing, tennis and many other sports! Learn about the global betting stage in our extensive guides.

Live SEK gambling sites

Live gambling sites

Live casinos in Sweden are regulated by Spelinspektionen and feature many of the world’s top live dealer platforms.

horse racing gambling in Sweden

Horse Racing

Horse racing, particularly the harness racing, is very popular in Sweden. While the global flat racing scene is followed closely by a dedicated band of local fans.

Traditional gambling games in Sweden

Sweden has a long history in gambling, with this dating back to the Vikings-times, and including some very popular dice games. The Swedes also boast a lotto draw that has been running for many years.

Tablut

Tablut is a traditional Swedish board game, part of the ancient tafl family of strategy games. Played on a 9×9 grid, it features two sides: the defenders, led by a king who must escape to the board’s edge, and the attackers, who aim to capture him by surrounding his piece. The game emphasises tactics and asymmetrical strategy, resembling chess in its mental challenge but with simpler movement rules. Historically, Tablut was popular across Scandinavia and was sometimes played for small stakes.

Vira

Vira is considered the national card game of Sweden, originating in the early 19th century as a local adaptation of the French game Ombre. Played by three participants using a 52-card deck, Vira combines elements of trick-taking and bidding. Each round begins with players bidding for the right to choose the trump suit and determine the contract, while the others attempt to defeat it through strategic play. The game involves complex scoring and tactical depth, making it a long-time favourite among Swedish card players. Historically, Vira was often played for small stakes or tokens, adding a gambling element to its competitive charm.

Gambling in Sweden

Sweden has a rich history in gambling, with the first lotto draw, the Penninglotteriet taking place in 1897, and horse racing betting legalized in 1923, before sports pools followed suit in 1934. 

You get the picture, Sweden, culturally and socially accept gambling as part of everyday life and this has continued in modern times, with this European country introducing casinos in 1999 and regulating iGaming properly in 2019. 

To gamble legally in Sweden you must be 18 years old, although this age limit is lifted to 20 if you wish to gamble at land-based casinos. 

Land-based gambling in Sweden includes state-owned lotteries, sports betting, and the four casinos, in Stockholm, Gothenberg, Sundsvall and Malmo, which are all operated by Svenska Spel. You will also find bingo halls and slot machines parlours available throughout Sweden, although these are usually licensed at a provincial level. 

Online gambling in Sweden has been licensed since January 1, 2019, with this enabled via the Gambling Act (2018:1138). Swedish gambling operators have the ability to legally offer online casino gaming, sports wagering, bingo and lotteries, with one of the key caveats being all must be in the SEK and must have responsible gambling tools available, like the Spelpaus.se self-exclusion register. 

Swedish horse racing thrives in both harness and thoroughbred formats, with major events like the Elitloppet and the Swedish Derby drawing large crowds. Unlike other European countries, like France and Germany, that have thriving flat racing scenes, Sweden is more inclined towards the trotters.

Best gambling apps in Sweden

iOS gambling apps are no.1 in Sweden, although Android is very popular and has closed the gap, despite the early adaption of Swedes to Apple products. 

Most real money wagering operators in Sweden have apps available for both Android and iOS, with the only prerequisite being that they must be licensed by the local gambling regulator. 

Apple gambling apps can be downloaded from the App Store, but they must be licensed in Sweden, geo-restricted to Swedish users, and comply with the 18+ age limit. The World Gambling List recommends registering an account with your chosen Swedish gambling website, before downloading their apps. 

Downloading gambling apps on Android smartphones in Sweden can be done in two ways — either through the Google Play Store, where licensed Swedish operators can list their apps, or directly from operators’ websites, which requires enabling non-market app downloads.

Gambling apps from licensed operators regulated by Spelinspektionen are usually available through Google Play. If you choose to play at an offshore casino or sportsbook, the app will almost always need to be downloaded directly from the operator.

The World Gambling List strongly advises Swedish readers to stay away from the unregulated offshore market, given the quality of the legal gambling apps available. 

Gambling apps is a diverse term, but rest assured you can bet on sports, play casino games (including slots and live dealer) via the regulated options and much more. 

Online gambling history in Sweden

To understand the history of online gambling in Sweden, you first need a little bit of background, including that the country has a long association with various forms of wagering. This includes a lottery that has run for 130 years and sports betting that kicked off close to a 100 years ago. 

With this in mind, the online gambling history really began in earnest in 1997, when the state-owned operator Svenska Spel was formed via the merger of two long-standing lottery companies, Tipstjänst and Svenska Penninglotteriet. 

From that moment the Swedish government signalled its preference for a tightly controlled monopoly model: Svenska Spel was given the lion’s share of lottery, scratch-cards (such as the well-known “Triss”), sports betting and other games of chance.

For years the monopoly model held strong. Svenska Spel dominated the market, held the licences for major brick-and-mortar gambling operations and maintained a very large share of the consumer spend.

But the online gambling gorilla was lurking and soon began to have a major impact after the poker boom (2004) and exploded around 2010. 

Many Swedish players were accessing gambling sites based abroad (often outside Swedish licensing jurisdiction) which offered games in Swedish language and took Swedish kronor. The domestic monopoly couldn’t fully stem this tide, even if enforcement was limited.

By the mid-2010s it was clear that the monopoly model was under pressure. EU regulation, digitalisation of gambling, the growth of mobile gaming and concerns about consumer protection and problem gambling all began to push the Swedish authorities to review the system.

In response, on 1 January 2019 the Swedish market was re-regulated under the new Swedish Gambling Act .The monopoly model was officially broken for many game types and a licence-based system was introduced. Svenska Spel lost its exclusive rights in many product categories, and new licensed operators – both domestic and foreign-owned – could apply to offer gambling to Swedish residents.

Today the Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen oversees the licensing, supervision, advertising restrictions and consumer- protection requirements. Though the market is open to new players, the legacy of the monopoly era remains visible: Svenska Spel retains strong brand awareness and many Swedes still rely on its products for lotteries, scratch-cards and sports betting.

SEK payment options at real money gambling sites

Online gambling sites in Sweden have got various deposit options available to their customers, with these all working with the Swedish Krona currency. 

While many real money casinos based offshore will have multiple currencies, including cryptos, that you can deposit with, the regulated industry in Sweden deals solely in the SEK. 

Minimum deposits are often listed as SEK 50 although these can be higher for some deposit options, including Paypal, with one popular operator listing SEK 330 as lowest.

Other popular payment options include bank transfers and pre-paid vouchers, like Visas and other pin-based vouchers bought online, like Paysafecard  

The full list of SEK deposit options at gambling sites includes: 

Gambling laws in Sweden

Sweden’s gambling regime is governed primarily by the Swedish Gambling Act (2018:1138) which took effect on January 1, 2019, and is enforced by the Swedish Gambling Authority (Spelinspektionen). Under the Act, commercial online gambling, betting, casino games, bingo and lotteries may only be offered to residents of Sweden by operators holding a Swedish licence. 

Only those gambling sites that are “provided in Sweden” and “directed at the Swedish market” fall under the licensing requirement. This means that playing with an offshore operator (i.e. one without a Swedish licence but accessible by Swedish residents) is not legal for the operator, though the person playing is not criminally prosecuted — the onus is on the operator, and winnings may not be protected. 

Legal forms of gambling in Sweden include online casino games, sports betting, horse racing, bingo, and state-run lotteries, all regulated under the Swedish Gambling Act. Land-based gambling is also permitted through licensed venues such as casinos operated by Casino Cosmopol and authorised slot machines in restaurants and bars.

Casino bonus offers are strictly regulated with the Gambling Act defining a “bonus” as a discount or similar financial incentive directly linked to gambling, and licensed operators may offer a bonus only once per player at their first registration. 

The Act requires that license-holders receive deposits via a payment service provider in accordance with the Swedish Payment Services Act. While there is no explicit confirmation of a blanket prohibition on cryptocurrency payments for gambling, the regime’s anti-money laundering and payment-service requirements mean that using crypto as a deposit method would face very high regulatory hurdles and is not standard practice. 

So in summary, legal forms of gambling in Sweden must be licensed, bonuses are very limited, and while Swedish residents may access offshore sites, they lack the protections of the regulated market and the operators offering those sites are operating illegally in relation to Swedish law.

The Swedes are often pointed to as an example of how a country can transition from a monopoly-based industry, to a more inclusive, updated framework that allows growth and an expanded industry.

Land-based casinos in Sweden 

Sweden’s last remaining land-based casino — Casino Cosmopol in Stockholm — will close by January , 2026. Sweden’s Svenska Spell, which holds the monopoly license for casinos in Sweden, confirmed the closure in April 2025, although they said the Stockholm location would remain open “indefinitely”. 

Swedish lawmakers and politicians pointed to the declining revenue and said they had “served their purpose”, but this mirrors other locations globally, which have taken time to bounce back from the COVID shutdowns and related financial issues. 

While there has been growing noise about possibly reversing the decision to shut down the monopoly, as it stands, when Casino Cosmopol closes no gambling operator will be permitted to run a casino in Sweden. 

Sweden gambling FAQ

Do you have a question about gambling in Sweden? Drop us a message in the box below or email us via contact@worldgamblinglist.com.

  • Is online gambling legal in Sweden?

    Yes, online gambling is legal in Sweden, with this including sports betting, online casinos, land-based wagering and slot machines.

  • Are online casinos licensed in Sweden?

    Yes the Spelinspektionen licenses online casinos in Sweden. 

  • What are popular casino games in Sweden?

    Swedes love blackjack, roulette and slots — both online and offline.

  • What happens if I play at an unlicensed gambling website?

    It is not illegal to play at offshore gambling sites, but it is illegal to offer gambling to Sweden without a license. You essentially won’t get in trouble for playing at unlicensed sites, but you wont’ have the safety net the local industry provides.

  • Are cryptocurrency and bitcoin payments allowed at SEK gambling sites?

    While many offshore gambling sites accept Swedes, and are bitcoin casinos, locally licensed gambling sites do not allow crypto payments.

  • Can I claim welcome bonuses at Swedish gambling sites?

    Yes, welcome bonuses or sign up offers are common-place at Swedish gambling sites.

  • Are casino winnings taxed in Sweden?

    If you are playing at a licensed gambling website or land-based your winnings are tax free. However if you win at foreign gambling sites you will be charged at a tax-rate of 22 per cent.

  • Can I fund gambling accounts with Swish?

    Yes, the locally regulated industry allows Swish payments, as long as your bank has it it set up.

  • Can Swedes fund gambling accounts with Trustly?

    Trustly, which allows users to transfer funds from their banks to gambling accounts, is an instant payment method available at various Swedish gambling sites.

  • Are gambling apps allowed in Sweden?

    Almost all of the top gambling site sin Sweden have Android and iOS apps available to customers.