Sweden’s gambling regulator has ordered offshore operator Immortal Snail LLC to stop offering gambling services in the country, concluding that its Duel.com platform continues to target Swedish consumers without holding the required local licence. The decision, issued by Spelinspektionen on 28 October, took effect immediately.
Spelinspektionen had accused the platform of actively serving the Swedish market and, following a review, the regulator said Swedish-language options, Swedish kronor (SEK) payment settings and Swedish-language marketing remained available to users in Sweden.
The authority also found no evidence that Swedish consumers were prevented from registering or opening accounts on the website.
Regulator rejects operator’s arguments over language and access
During the investigation, Immortal Snail LLC argued that Swedish is an international language and said Sweden would be IP-blocked from accessing the website.
The company also maintained that it could not control whether players chose to use Swedish kronor when making payments. In addition, it stated that it did not intend to remove the Swedish-language option from the website.
However, a follow-up inspection carried out by Spelinspektionen found that an IP block had still not been implemented. The regulator said Swedish users could continue to access the site, select Swedish as a language, and use SEK-related payment settings when logging in from a Swedish IP address. Authorities also noted that Swedish-language marketing for Duel.com was still being carried out online.
Under Sweden’s Gambling Act, online gambling is considered to be offered in Sweden when it is directed at the Swedish market.
A waste of time?
After reviewing the evidence, Spelinspektionen concluded that the operator was offering gambling services to Swedish consumers without the licence required under Swedish law. The authority therefore issued a prohibition order preventing Immortal Snail LLC from continuing to provide gambling services in Sweden.
However, this is far from the first time a European regulator has issued such an order against an offshore gambling operator. Similar actions have been taken in markets including Finland and the Netherlands, often against companies accused of targeting local consumers without the required licence.
The challenge for regulators is that many of these operators are based outside the jurisdictions they target. Even when prohibition orders or fines are issued, some businesses continue operating through alternative domains, mirror websites, or new marketing channels.
In Finland, authorities recently issued a €1.2m conditional penalty against MagicPoro over alleged targeting of Finnish consumers, while Dutch regulators imposed a record €37m penalty on an offshore operator after concluding it continued serving Dutch players despite earlier warnings.
As a result, the focus is increasingly shifting away from operators alone and towards the companies that help them reach consumers. Regulators and licensed operators across Europe are putting more pressure on major technology platforms, advertising networks and social media companies to remove illegal gambling promotions.
Recent examples include legal action involving Dutch trade body VNLOK and Meta, while Nordic operator Paf and also the KSA have launched projects with Meta and Google aimed at sharing information on unlicensed operators and rogue affiliates.
