Announcement about Balacs Pinball Party and IFPA8 World Pinball Championships
The National Gaming Board of Sweden informed us this Tuesday that the pinball tournaments Balacs Pinball Party and IFPA8 World Pinball Championships are illegal according to Swedish law, and thus we need a license to be able to run the tournaments. They also filed a report at the local police about the tournaments, and that they would be considered illegal if played without a license. We spent the Wednesday to collect all the documents from different sources needed for the application, and yesterday morning Stockholm Pinball (which is the legal entity in Sweden that have the closest connection to the tournaments) applied for this license. Normally the handling timeframe is one month, but the gaming board gave our application the highest priority and rapid treatment.
However, about two hours ago they informed us that they will not be able to make the decision in time for this weekend (since they closed about two hours ago). This means that we cannot run the Balacs Pinball Party tournament this weekend without breaking the law. They also requested additional information from us, and we are now working on providing them with this information. They will continue to work on our application Monday morning, and well before that we will have given them the information requested. We still have hope that we can save the IFPA8 tournament without having to postpone or cancel the tournament.
The National Gaming Board of Sweden have also informed us that winning prizes consisting of money or having a value of money at pinball tournaments are not allowed by Swedish law. The IFPA World Pinball Championships will thus not pay out any prizes. If the gaming board will grant us a license, we will have to play for the honor and glory alone. Information about the outcome of the application, and the economical consequences for the participants, will be announced as soon as we know how things will turn out.
Regards
/Patrik Bodin
IFPA Country Director, Sweden
the@pal.pp.se
