What's up in Scandinavia?

Ola Brandborn and Greg Raymer at the poker seminar in Stockholm

Go-ahead for gambling in Sweden?

The Swedish Supreme Court delivered a ruling on April 20, 2006, stating that certain provisions of the Swedish Lotteries Act are not applicable, due to the fact that they had been enacted without adhering to the EU regulations regarding so-called "notification" of such provisions to the EU Commission before actual enactment.

This error of form became the pebble that gave rise to the landslide, in form of the Swedish gambling monopoly, says Ulf Linde, acting chairman of the National Association of Entertainment Business (Swe. NRF -Nöjesbranschens Riksförbund).

NRF, who recently arranged an "open-air casino" in central Stockholm, sees the ruling of the Supreme Court as proof that the Swedish Lotteries Act is not applicable. At that "open-air" event, it's worth mentioning, NRF got back the roulette wheel which was initially confiscated at the scene by police, after the prosecutor's decision to close down the investigation and reverse the decision of confiscation.

Awaiting a new Swedish Lotteries Act, which according to NRF could be delayed, the association considers it fully permissible to arrange poker tournaments, casino and other forms of gambling, without a state license. This view is of course not shared by the Swedish Government, which has previously stated that it feels the Supreme Court should have ruled otherwise. However, there are no possibilities of appeal of the Supreme Court's ruling.

NRF now has several pilot cases in various lower instance Swedish courts, legally based on the Supreme Court's ruling, aiming at once and for all proving that the Lotteries Act (and therewith the Swedish gambling monopoly) has fallen. Shortly, NRF will open up Sweden's first privately owned casino, confident that there is a now a complete go-ahead for arranging gambling in Sweden without a state license.

Celebrities visiting Sweden and Norway

Well into the second week in May Sweden and Norway was visited by three champions – Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem with PokerStars who were on a promotional tour for the WSOP. To our pleasure it turned out that Greg Raymer had some time over for some sightseeing in Stockholm. And as I myself was in the middle of arranging a poker seminar, I could convince Greg to make a more or less surprise visit at the seminar and on top of that talk a bit. Greg talked about the early stages in tournament poker, and had then set some time aside for questions from the audience, which was greatly appreciated. Amongst the other lecturers were Ken Lennaárd, Bo Sehlstedt, Mats Iremark and Anders Henriksson whom all touched upon different aspects of tournament poker. The other topics for the seminar were Casino Cosmopol, money management, poker psychology and tax on Internet poker. The last one is a bit of a bother, but it is apparently completely no tax for Swedes and Danes as long as the poker game is arranged within EU. Outside of EU, you have to pay tax. Whether it is where the company has its license or where it is registered, well that is a tough task for the respective countries tax departments. Even though we made an effort to clear things up in that question at the seminar, there is probably a lot more to be said on this topic.

Live poker on the other hand is treated the same way: completely free of tax for Swedish and Danish citizens as long as you play within EU, while if you win a tourney in for example USA, you are obliged to pay tax for the winnings – and the loss is not deductible nor expenses.

Up-coming live poker in Scandinavia

So, with focus on the tax issue I am glad to see that there are a lot of big live tournaments almost every weekend in Europe. A completely new tour, the Showdown Poker Tour had its debut in London just the other weekend, where Mats Gavatin from Sweden won – the same Mats who took home the EPT Dublin. The tour unfortunately won't be coming to Sweden or Norway thanks to our governments, but Denmark on the other hand has an event in October. Another interesting upcoming events in Scandinavia is the PAF Poker Championship that takes place in Åland, a semi-independent group of islands between Sweden and Finland in the middle of July. Come on over, buy me a beer – I'll be there!