Swedish internet service provider sounds alarm over gambling IP-blocking plans

An internet service provider in Sweden is sounding the alarm over the government’s plan to IP-block unauthorized online gambling sites.

Over the weekend, leading Swedish ISP Bahnhof released a statement saying it had received an email from an investigator hired by the Swedish government to consider ways to “efficiently” prevent unauthorized online gambling operators from offering services to Swedish gamblers.

Sweden’s government is in the process of revising the country’s legal landscape for gambling, which will see the end of state-owned operator Svenska Spel’s online betting monopoly and the licensing of independent online operators.

As part of this process, specifics of which won’t be made public until March 2017, steps would be taken to ensure that operators who lack a new Swedish license are unable to serve Swedish punters. Bahnhof says the government investigator has asked for a meeting in which to discuss the ISP’s role in this plan.