Sweden's poker championship plays in Bratislava, and seven nights a week play in Stockholm
Sweden has no casinos left and no lawful poker cash game anywhere in the country, so its national championship is staged in Slovakia — the federation that runs it says so in as many words. What remains at home is club poker: a licence that permits tournaments in Hold'em and Omaha only, two licensed card-game addresses in the whole country, and at least one Stockholm club dealing a tournament every night of the week.
Svenska Pokerförbundet, the non-profit player federation that has organised Sweden's national poker championship since 2004, states on its own site that Poker-SM Live is played outside Sweden because of Swedish legislation. The 2026 edition bore that out: 3 to 10 August at Banco Casino in Bratislava, eleven official Swedish titles inside a programme of more than thirty tournaments, 360,000 euro guaranteed, with qualifiers run through Unibet, Coolbet, Svenska Spel and Paf.
Why it cannot be played at home
Two things happened. The first is that Sweden's casinos closed. Svenska Spel's own notice records Sundsvall closing in 2020, Göteborg and Malmö in February 2024, and Casino Cosmopol in Stockholm closing permanently from 25 April after the Riksdag decided to dismantle the state casinos and the government issued a changed owner directive. Spelinspektionen's published statistics show state casino turnover at 8 million kronor in the second quarter of 2025 and zero in every quarter after it. Svenska Spel's notice is blunt about the consequence: with land-based casinos gone, nobody may offer cash games, and tournament poker can be run only to a limited extent under a special licence.
The second is the shape of that special licence. Spelinspektionen's own guidance places the land-based card-game licence in chapter 9 of the Gambling Act and restricts it twice over. It covers card play in tournament form, and within that it covers only poker in which both community cards and individual cards occur — the regulator's wording is that tournament card play may comprise only poker where both shared and individual cards appear in the game. Hold'em and Omaha qualify. Draw and stud games do not. A multi-discipline championship that awards Swedish titles in Mörkpoker, Sviten Special, Chicago and H.O.R.S.E. therefore has nowhere lawful to sit in Sweden, which is the practical reason the federation books a casino abroad.
The licence is also expensive to hold. Spelinspektionen's fee schedule puts the application at 25,000 kronor for a natural person and 80,000 kronor for a legal person, reduced to 30,000 kronor for an existing holder of a commercial online gaming licence, plus 3,000 kronor for each additional gaming location.
What is left at home
More than the licence conditions suggest, and less than the search results do. Spelinspektionen's register lists only two addresses in Sweden holding the land-based card-game licence: Opuk Poker on Hagagatan in Stockholm, held by Sthlm Opuk Ideell Förening on a licence recorded as valid from 25 September 2025 to 24 September 2027, and Miss Wang in Malmö. Two rooms, for ten million people.
Against that, Oden Pokerklubb in Stockholm publishes a tournament on all seven nights of the week — Hold'em on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Omaha on Tuesday and Wednesday, all at 18:00 except a 16:00 Sunday. The club states on its site that it holds a Swedish gaming licence and shows the regulator's logo, but publishes no licence number and no street address, and its trading name does not appear in the register entries we have read. We cannot resolve that from the pages themselves, and we are not going to guess: the club asserts a licence, and anyone planning a trip should ask it, or the register, directly.
It is worth noticing what none of these clubs publish. Not one of the seven Oden fixtures carries a buy-in, a starting stack, a blind structure or a guarantee on the schedule page, and the register lists no web address at all for Opuk Poker. Sweden has gone from a state casino operator that published everything to a club scene that publishes a weekday and a time.
For players
If you want tournament poker in Sweden, it exists, in Stockholm and Malmö, in Hold'em and Omaha, and you will have to ring ahead. If you want a cash game, there is no lawful one in the country. If you want to play for a Swedish title, you will need a federation membership taken out before the event starts, Swedish citizenship or registered residence to be eligible for the title itself, and a flight.
This is general information about how Sweden's gambling rules work in practice, not legal advice.
Read the original at Svenska Spel, Spelinspektionen, Svenska Pokerförbundet and Poker-SM →
Frequently asked questions
Is live poker legal in Sweden?
Tournament poker is, under a land-based card-game licence in chapter 9 of the Gambling Act, and only in variants where both community cards and individual cards occur. Poker cash games are not available anywhere in Sweden following the closure of the state casinos. This is general information, not legal advice.
Are there any casinos left in Sweden?
No. Svenska Spel's notice records Sundsvall closing in 2020, Göteborg and Malmö in February 2024, and Casino Cosmopol in Stockholm closing permanently from 25 April after the Riksdag decided to dismantle the state casinos.
Where can you actually play tournament poker in Sweden?
Spelinspektionen's register lists two licensed card-game addresses, Opuk Poker in Stockholm and Miss Wang in Malmö. Oden Pokerklubb in Stockholm separately publishes a tournament on all seven nights and states that it holds a Swedish licence. None of them publish buy-ins, so contact the club first.
Why is Poker-SM played in Slovakia?
Svenska Pokerförbundet says the live championship is held outside Sweden because of Swedish legislation. The 2026 edition ran 3-10 August at Banco Casino in Bratislava.