At the time of this writing, the latest news in Scandinavia concerns the recent sentence against a prosecuted poker club owner from Halmstad, Sweden. The defence had pleaded not guilty (due to not being private) - and won the case!
Of course there is going to be an appeal, but still, first round has been won. The club owner was charged partly with breaking the alcohol laws (he had massive amounts of liquor for sale), and partly with breaking the lottery laws. The latter are less uncompromising than the gambling laws, which he avoided by arranging freezeout tournaments. In order to be accused of breaking the gambling laws, the play would have needed some element of adventure, like in a cash game.
Ultimately, they were not convicted of serving alcohol without license, nor seemed to be guilty by the law of commiting any crime against the gaming act.
The verdict is very interesting, because I think it means that the police will not be going after Swedish clubs as long as they don't arrange cash games and rebuy tournaments - at least as long as the clubs don't grow too big.
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