Best 35 Live Casinos in Sweden

The oldest evidence of gambling in Sweden dates back to the third century A.D. so gambling goes way back in Sweden’s history. The card games started gaining popularity in the 1400s, and the first casino opened in the 18th century (it was called Ramlosa Brunn).

In this casino players could enjoy roulette, faro, and basset. This all changed in the 19th century when all casinos were banned, due to the pressure of the Swedish Church which called gambling “diabolical”.

After a long process of lobbying and proposing legislation, land-based gambling was finally legalized in 1994. There are currently 4 land-based casinos in Sweden and players need to be at least 20 years old to be allowed entrance. These casinos are located in Gothenburg, Malmo, Stockholm, and Sundsvall, and they are all under the umbrella and name of Casino Cosmol.

Lotteriinspektionen (the Swedish Gambling Authority) is the body that deals with the regulation, licensing, monitoring, and supervision of all gambling activities and facilities within the country.

As for online gambling and live casino gaming, it became legal in 2002 and it was run by the state-owned Svenska Spiel until 2019 when the EU put pressure on Sweden for having an anti-competitive gambling market.

As a result, Sweden passed new legislation which broadened the market and allowed local and foreign operators to apply for a license. Since then Swedish players have had access to some of the best live casino operators in the world.

The legend says that the first act of gambling in Sweden was made by a Swedish king and his Norwegian counterpart in 1020 to settle a land issue. This was reportedly done by the rolling of a dice. The first state-owned lottery in Sweden was opened in 1879 and it was called the Penning Lotteriet.

In 1997 Svenska Spel was created as a state-owned gambling operator. In 1999 Svenska Spel acquired a license to operate and control six casinos across Sweden. Svenska Spel launched a gambling website in 2006 which offered sports betting, bingo, poker, and lottery.

So, currently, all forms of gambling are legal in Sweden, and until recently it was all controlled by the country. This changed in 2019 when new legislation was passed which allowed private entities to apply for an online gambling license. Land-based casinos are still controlled by the state.

The current legislation says that all the profits generated from gambling must be used for objectives of social benefits and public interest. This was also the reason why the Swedish Government allowed state-controlled operators the right to start online gambling activities.

In recent years gambling has become increasingly attractive to Swedish gamblers due to the relaxation of the legislation. The state-run Svenska Spel with its monopoly on all online gambling activities restricted the players to a very narrow choice of online gambling and live casinos.

There are still certain restrictions when it comes to online gambling in the form of weekly betting limits and bonus limits, but the very fact that private entities are allowed to apply for a license since 2019 is a big step forward and promises more amendments to the existing regulation.

The future of online casinos in Sweden looks promising. Sweden is home to a young population and they follow the world trend of gambling online. All this combined with the fact that the market is just beginning to liberalize, makes it an ideal place for the growth of online gambling operators.

There is slight worry among Swedish gamblers in regards to certain weekly limits being placed on whether they can gamble, but it is expected that this will be under review in the near future, as the gambling market itself will need to evolve and follow the world’s trend.

Mobile gaming is the next big thing when it comes to online gambling, as statistics show that this is generating a good, steady flow of income for most gambling markets – including Sweden. There was a survey carried out in 2019 that showed that the total income from mobile gaming is $1.9 billion, which is way more than the numbers in the same study in 2017. These reports show profits are being made for 10 straight years.

This has increased even more since Sweden allowed private companies in the casino sector. Games such as blackjack, roulette and so on are available on almost every Swedish mobile gaming site. Besides the games, all of the leading live dealer casinos in Sweden have implemented the best payment methods, have responsive customer support, welcome bonuses, and so on.

As stated before, land-based and live casinos are legal in Sweden. Land-based casinos were legalized in 1994, while online gambling became legal in 2002. Land-based gambling is controlled by the state-owned Svenska Spel, and the state is the one who has all the rights in regards to the regulation of the gambling sector.

Land-based casinos are controlled by the subsidiary enterprise Casino Cosmopol, which got a license from the Government of Sweden in 1999 to build six casinos. From those six, nowadays four are active casinos, as certain research carried out by Cosmopol indicated that four such enterprises will be sufficient for the Swedish market.

The four casinos are located in the largest cities of Sweden: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Sundsvall.

As for the live casinos, until recently that sector was also run by Svenska Spel, however, due to the big pressure from the European Commission to liberalize the gambling market, in 2019 a legislation was passed which allowed foreign and domestic private entities to apply for an online gambling license.

The gambling sector is regulated by the Lotteries Act and the Swedish Gambling Authority is the body that deals with the control and regulation of the casinos.

Currently, there are two categories of casino operations in Sweden: international casinos and restaurant casinos.

International casinos are under the control of the Casino Act. These casinos operate under the standard, international casino rules that have high stakes, larger prizes, and so on. According to the Casino Act, only four casinos operate in the territory of Sweden. They are state-owned operators and their licenses are issued by the Swedish Government. They are all under the umbrella of the subsidiary of Svenska Spel – Casino Cosmopol.

The second category is the so-called restaurant casinos, which offer card games, roulette, and dice. The regulation comes from the Lotteries Act, and a license for these kinds of casinos is mandatory. The license for these casinos is issued by the Swedish Gambling Authority. There are around 600 casinos of this type in Sweden.

Basically, there are two main legal instruments that control the casino operations in the country: the Lotteries Act from 1994 and the Casinos Act from 1999, which were brought to control all kinds of gambling operations by the country.

The organization that is entitled to issue licenses is the Swedish Gambling Authority.

In 2002, two companies – Svenska Spel and Trav och Galopp were allowed to start online gambling operations. It was a monopoly until 2019 when Sweden finally brought forward legislation that opened the market for other operators.

As is the case across many markets in the world, Swedish players' favourite live game is poker. Sweden was one of the first countries where live poker became extremely popular. This was already evident in 2002 when a huge number of Swedish players started playing at live poker tournaments. Today, players play at low-stake live poker games, as well as the biggest live poker tournaments.

The game offerings of live casinos in Sweden are impressive, they include both live roulette and blackjack and more unique titles such as Dream Catcher. These games are provided by the leading game providers in the market - Microgaming, NetEnt, Blueprint, Play’n Go, and the Swedish company – Elk Studios.

In addition to the Live Roulette, and the Live Blackjack, players can enjoy Live Baccarat games, together with the already mentioned live poker games such as Live Three Card Poker or Live Casino Hold’em.

It is evident that all Swedish gamblers can enjoy the full suite of live dealer games from the leading providers in the market. Clearly, almost every player will find something that would suit their gaming style or budget. This is a big advantage, and it is a characteristic of a well-developed, and well-regulated market.

Sweden is one of the best-regulated gambling markets, so the game providers that exist there must be all high-class with cutting-edge games to offer. With their immense technology and top-notch games, these software providers are among the best in the world.

On the top casino sites in the Swedish market, players can see that there are games offered from dozen providers, with certain sites having more than 50 software platforms. The most popular game providers in Sweden are NetEnt, Microgaming, Blueprint, Play’n Go, Evolution Gaming, and the Swedish provider – Elk Studios.

All of these providers have the technological edge, and the fact that they are present across any gambling market in the world proves that players can rest assured of their quality and cutting-edge games.

The second most popular category of games in Sweden is slots. Players can enjoy the video, classic, or jackpot slots. There are big jackpots won at Swedish casinos from the slots. It is interesting to note that the progressive slot games can offer up to three or even more jackpots at a time.

Players must have in mind that many of these jackpots change as they are progressive. They will also change as soon as a jackpot is won. Besides these games, the one category of games that are gaining popularity is bitcoin games.

Sweden is known for its trend to be the most cashless society in the world, so given the forward-thinking of the Government and the people in Sweden, it comes as no surprise that many Swedish players have embraced Bitcoin as an option to gamble online.

Gambling at a Swedish casino that offers the chance to use cryptocurrency is a new trend in Sweden, and there is evidently a big number of online casinos opening their doors to virtual money. Top casinos in Sweden offer the opportunity to gamble with cryptocurrency, so any player can access these sites and can play confidently as their transactions are safe.

When searching for a live casino, players will likely come across plenty of welcome bonus offers. These welcome bonuses are different, they vary from site to site, but most live casinos offer free spins or fund matches on the first deposit. One thing that a player must do is read the terms and conditions of bonuses, such as the wagering requirements.

Besides the welcome bonus, players can use the cashback bonus, which is a sort of affirmation to the players that they will receive a certain percentage of their money that they lost playing the games. The money they are entitled to return depends on the deposit the player makes. The impact of these bonuses is remarkable among players and it plays a central role in strengthening players' loyalty.

The Match Bonus is the third most popular bonus among Swedish players, and it is activated when players make a deposit to play games, and the live casino matches the percentage of the total amount that the player made.

The Loyalty Bonus is for the most active players in the given live casino. The payouts and the amounts are different in every operator, but they are available in all major gambling sites in the Swedish market.

As mentioned before, it is important to read the terms and conditions of every bonus before signing up to any live casino, as each of these bonuses has general and pretty specific terms and conditions. The general ones say that a player must be registered to the site to be eligible in claiming each bonus.

The welcome bonus, logically, can only be claimed once and it is strictly available to the new players. The other bonuses will require players to deposit a certain minimum amount, which differs from one casino to another. Certain casinos require players to enter a bonus code.

If the players wish to make the most of these bonuses, then they need to go through the terms and conditions of the chosen live casino to avoid any inconvenience at the end of the process – the cash withdrawal.

A reliable way of knowing if the gambling site is trustworthy is the payment methods it has integrated. If all of the top-class payment options such as PayPal, MasterCard, or Visa are accepted, then that online casino is trusted by the biggest companies in the payments sector and players can be sure of its reliability and safety.

These payment methods have the best technologies, so all transactions are safe and protected. In Swedish top-class online casinos, players can find a variety of payment options at their disposal: PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, MasterCard, Visa, Maestro, Zimpler, Instant Banking, Bank Transfer, Wire Transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Bitcoin.

Although the most popular payment methods for Swedish gamblers are debit and credit cards, certain local preferences are also gaining ground. Paysafecard is one of those, as it is a cheap, but safe payment option that allows players to buy prepaid vouchers and use those funds to gamble online.

This is a good option to fund online gambling accounts at Swedish live casinos. After purchasing this prepaid card, players are given a 16-digit PIN code that is required when making a transaction on the live casino site.