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The first Swedish influencer could be convicted of promoting illegal gambling after they were taken into custody last week.

The unnamed social media star with 150,000 followers was arrested for streaming casino games on sites that are not licensed by the Swedish authorities. 

Allegedly, the influencer repeatedly broadcast himself gaming on livestreams on various platforms to his followers, including minors. 

He was arrested on Friday (January 10) on charges including aggravated accounting fraud, aggravated tax fraud, aggravated business money laundering, hindering tax control and aggravated promotion of illegal gambling.

Like other influencers who have been arrested on similar charges in Brazil, the promotion of unlicensed sites was not his sole crime, but came in conjunction with other fraud charges. 

According to Gustaf Hoffstedt, the secretary general of the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling, promoting unlicensed gambling, “especially to minors”, is already illegal. 

“It’s more a question of giving that crime priority within law enforcement authorities in Sweden. I sincerely hope they will do so. A constant dilemma is whether an [offshore] gambling company is illegal by the law or not.” 

Last week, the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) also had to take time to shoot down reports that its self-exclusion registry had been leaked. 

It was reported by a documentary called "Kasinoläkkan" on P1 radio station that data breaches had occurred.

The SGA countered that “all information in the register is encrypted and there is no information about whether the person who has self-excluded is addicted to gambling or not”. 

“Since Spring 2024, the Swedish Gambling Authority has begun work to investigate possible reasons why people who are banned from Spelpaus.se receive marketing from companies without a Swedish gaming license in connection with their ban,” the regulator said.

Hoffstedt commented that these accusations are nothing new: “I have heard this rumour for a couple of years without receiving any proof or confirmation from anyone. According to my opinion it is up to Swedish authorities to find out whether there is any substance in the claim or not. If it has substance, then it is obviously very serious. If not, we should probably pay attention to other challenges.”