Svenksa Spel’s gaming monopoly ought to be abolished in order to make way for new forms of cultural support, writes the Moderate Party’s Culture Committee.
Margareta Winberg, a former Social Democratic Deputy Prime Minister, has been named the new chair of Svenksa Spel, Sweden’s state-owned gaming operation.
Sweden's state-owned gambling monopoly, Svenska Spel, made profits of nearly 1.4 billion kronor ($215 million) in the third quarter, the company announced on Tuesday.
State-owned Swedish betting company Svenska Spel has said it will introduce compulsory age checks for people using its gaming machines. Shops and bars that host the machines but do not enforce the age limits will face tougher penalties, the company has said.
Svenska Spel, Sweden's state-owned gambling company, has been accused of deliberately targeting gaming machines in areas with major social problems and low average incomes.
Swedish state gambling operator Svenska Spel has said it is closing its Limbo game after it was reported that organized groups were cheating, winning themselves hundreds of thousands of kronor and making it practically impossible for small players to win.
Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet has said it intends to publish an advertisement for Maltese gambling company Expekt, despite a court ruling on Thursday authorizing stiff penalties if it goes ahead.
Despite tough competition from online gambling firms, Swedish horse racing organisation AB Trav och Galopp returned record results in 2006. Turnover on horse racing betting increased to 11.27 billion kronor, an increase of 2.6 percent on 2005.
Sweden's gambling monopoly Svenska Spel claims to take its public responsibility very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that the state organisation has introduced group toilet breaks for its online poker games.
Foreign companies could be allowed to enter the Swedish gambling market when the state-run monopoly, Svenska Spel is dismantled, Sweden's new minister for financial markets has said.
The opening of a state-owned casino in Malmö has contributed to a doubling in the number of gambling addicts in the city, a new report from the Swedish National Institute for Public Health will claim.
The Christian Democrats, the smallest of the four Alliance parties, now says it is open to the idea of allowing foreign competition into the current gaming monopoly in Sweden.
The Swedish gaming industry is one of a trio of State-controlled sectors to have come under increasing scrutiny in the eleven years since Sweden’s accession to the EU. Alcohol, and its natural successor paracetamol, can similarly only be obtained under the watchful eye of the State. But it is the world of odds, pools and lotteries that currently seems most vulnerable to the perils of EU competition law.
Svenska Spel has recorded a post-tax profit of 1.1 billion kronor for the first quarter, a fall of 86 million kronor compared with the same period in 2005.
