The letter was published yesterday (15 December) and signed by 13 chief executives including leaders from Entain, Betsson and LeoVegas.
It argues that state-linked horse racing monopoly ATG’s proposal to reduce the tax rate on horse racing betting, from 22% to 18%, while raising online casino tax to 26% would be counterproductive to Sweden’s gambling policy objectives.
ATG has been advocating for the differentiated approach since the Swedish government increased its headline gambling tax rate from 18% to 22% in October 2023.
It follows the UK’s decision last month to hike online casino and sports betting taxes to 40% and 25% respectively, with the government including a carve-out for some activities, including horse racing.
The industry coalition warned that ATG’s proposal would harm channelisation rates, the measure of what proportion of gambling occurs within the regulated market.
Sweden’s government has set a channelisation target of 90%, but the Swedish Gambling Authority’s latest estimate put the figure at 85%.
Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS), said the proposal was misguided given the varying channelisation rates across different products.
Sweden’s channelisation concerns
The authority’s data shows betting has a channelisation rate of between 92% and 96%, while online casino sits significantly lower at between 72% and 82%.
The letter challenged ATG’s argument that online casino represents a riskier product than horse betting and therefore warrants higher taxation.
The operators said this reasoning was flawed, stating that the data available clearly shows that for at-risk players, all games are risky games, including horse betting.
The signatories also dismissed ATG’s secondary argument that horse betting serves as an important revenue source for the broader equestrian industry, noting this falls outside the scope of Swedish gambling policy objectives.
The letter stated that the goal of the gambling policy is primarily the protection of consumers.
It added that to lower the tax on horse racing gambling, which has practically no problem with channelisation, at the expense of online casino, which has major problems with channelisation, would be reckless.
Horse betting in Sweden is estimated to have a channelisation rate of around 98% to 99%, according to research cited in the letter.
ATG, which was controlled by the Swedish government until recently and now operates as an independent entity, previously paid 35% tax on its gambling surplus before the market was re-regulated in 2019.
The operators said they support Sweden’s current position of maintaining uniform tax rates across all gambling products, rather than introducing differentiation.
Dingnews.com 18/12/2025