Facing the Music in Sweden
The Swedish government has announced that online casinos gambling companies
operating on Swedish soil or for Swedish players could face some truly severe
gambling related fines. Sweden is well known in the internet gambling industry
because of the nation’s government is extremely protective of the state-run
gambling company, Svenske Spel. The Swedish government has announced that after
months of investigation the government is seeking nearly Euro 45 million from
online casinos and related companies that are accused of tax evasion.
The fact that the Swedish tax authorities are going after the online casinos
industry is actually no recent surprise, not after the tax authorities teamed up
with the National Economic Crimes Bureau and the Swedish Gaming Board to
identify MultiPoker.com as violating Swedish taxing policies and demanding Euro
4.3 million in back taxes.
MultiPoker was just the first of many online casinos companies expected to face
heavy fines from the Swedish government. Using Xenon software the Swedish
authorities are able to monitor the activity on certain Web sites. In addition
to the software, the government has spent several months now sending out
questionnaires to companies suspected of violating online gambling legislation
and taxing.
Some in the EU view this latest venture from Sweden as a bit much considering
the country is in direct violation of EU trade principles that stress the free
trade of goods and services between EU member-states. Now some of those foreign
betting and online casinos gambling companies could face some fierce government
taxes.
|