Sweden’s gambling monopoly appears to be living on borrowed time after the government announced long awaited plans to shake up the country’s gambling market.

A year ago, the European Commission announced it was taking Sweden to the European Union’s top court due to it having failed to respond to earlier criticisms of the country’s restrictive gambling laws. Late last month, Sweden’s Ministry of Finance finally responded by announcing it was launching an inquiry into what a revised gambling landscape would look like.

Saying it was time to “adapt Swedish legislation to the conditions of an international and easily accessible gaming market,” the Ministry laid out 18 points that would guide the inquiry, among them the future role of the state-owned Svenska Spel gambling monopoly. Svenska Spel is currently the only company licensed to offer online betting to Swedish gamblers, although its limited palette of options has helped steer punters to any number of international gambling sites.

The Ministry’s directive says the new betting market will be “characterized by competition between equal players” and thus it’s necessary to consider “whether the state will own and control gaming companies.” Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of Sweden’s Association of Online Gambling Operators, believes the government has at long last committed itself to privatizing Svenska Spel.