Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s gambling regulator, has banned offshore casino Duel.com from offering gambling in the country without a Swedish licence. The prohibition was issued on October 28, took effect immediately, and applies to Immortal Snail LLC, the company behind Duel.com. According to the regulator, the platform kept targeting Swedish customers without the required authorisation and never put in place the geographical restrictions the company had said it would introduce.
Several signs that Duel.com was going after the Swedish market prompted the investigation. Swedish was offered as a language option during payment, users could pick Swedish kronor, the site was promoted through Swedish-language affiliate websites, and investigators found nothing stopping Swedish residents from signing up. The authority also tried a covert test purchase during its investigation, though that transaction didn’t go through.
Immortal Snail pushed back on parts of the assessment, arguing that Swedish is an international language and that offering it on a gambling site shouldn’t automatically count as targeting Sweden. It also said it had no control over whether players paid in SEK and refused to drop Swedish-language support. What it did say was that it would block Swedish IP addresses to keep residents out of its gambling services.
That block still wasn’t in place when Spelinspektionen checked again on October 28. Visitors on Swedish IP addresses could still get onto the site, Swedish language options and SEK were both still available, and the regulator found marketing through Swedish-language websites was still running, all of which fed into its decision to ban the operator from offering gambling in Sweden without a licence.
Sweden’s Gambling Act requires any operator targeting Swedish consumers to hold a domestic licence, no matter where the company is registered. When deciding whether an offshore platform is targeting the country, the regulator looks at things like localised payment options, Swedish-language marketing, and whether residents can open accounts. Operators that stop Swedish users from registering can stay outside those requirements, as long as their services aren’t aimed at the local market in other ways.
Duel.com’s operator, Immortal Snail LLC, is registered in Nevis, and the platform holds a gambling licence from Anjouan in the Comoros. It offers cryptocurrency gambling and has drawn attention for aggressive social media advertising, including partnerships with controversial internet personalities and adult content creators. Its Anjouan licence doesn’t give it permission to offer gambling in Sweden, where operators have to meet the country’s own licensing rules.
The ban doesn’t automatically cut Swedish players off from Duel.com, either. Swedish gambling publication Bettingbladet tried the site on the evening of October 28 and managed to register an account from a Swedish IP address with just a username and password. Swedish and SEK were no longer selectable during that sign-up, but the site itself was still reachable, which suggests the operator hadn’t fully shut out Swedish customers after the regulator’s decision.
Lufilight Ltd got a separate prohibition from Spelinspektionen on the same day, covering its Ivibet, Hellspin, and Slotsgem brands, which had been sending Swedish visitors to alternative domains with local registration settings and Swedish-language affiliate promotions. Neither ban came with an announced financial penalty. The regulator has been ramping up enforcement against unlicensed operators, having previously acted against platforms including Stakes.com and BC.GAME, as part of a push to steer more gambling into the regulated Swedish market.