ATG has released its channeling report for the third quarter of 2024.

The report, which covers the time period from the first quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2024, highlights a worrying situation in the gaming industry. It shows that there is still a large proportion of gambling activities that take place outside the regulated system.

The purpose of the report is to increase knowledge about unlicensed gambling in Sweden. Through a better understanding of its scope and development, ATG wants to contribute to ensuring that the right measures are taken, so that the licensed gambling can out-compete the unlicensed and thus increase the channelisation rate.

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The channelisation rate for games in the third quarter of 2024 is estimated at 70–82%, which is to be compared with the government’s goal for games with licensed operators of 90%. The ratio has stabilised somewhat compared to the previous quarter, but the long-term trend is still downward.

The result is alarming because unlicensed gambling is more likely to be linked to problem gambling.

“Unlicensed gambling is estimated to have a gross turnover of up to SEK 150 billion – equivalent to the cost of the entire Swedish primary school. To simultaneously make such high demands on us licensed gambling companies, while these enormous sums escape regulation and control, is both unreasonable and counterproductive,” said ATG CEO Hasse Lord Skarplöth.

Other key findings in the report for the third quarter:

Visitor traffic from Sweden to unlicensed companies has increased tenfold since 2019.

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18 of the 20 unlicensed sites with the largest visitor traffic during the quarter had the same platform providers as the companies within the license system.

Only two of the 20 unlicensed sites were on the Spelinspektionen’s ban list.