Today, the Swedish Agency for Public Management publishes its fourth report on the Swedish gambling market since the re-regulation in January 2019. The report is available for download here.
The Swedish Agency for Public Management confirms the picture described by the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling in its previous reports; the proportion of consumers who gamble within the Swedish licensing system is declining. The proportion of Swedish gambling consumers who gamble at unregulated gambling companies in Sweden is increasing. Public control over the gambling market decreases and thus the possibility of offering gamblers full consumer protection.
– I hope that the report by the Swedish Agency for Public Managementcan now put an end to the political proposals that the so-called channeling into the Swedish licensing system is good. It is not, and the trend remains negative. We have felt quite alone in this remark, but hope for a sobriety now that the state’s own expert authority points to the same conclusion, says Gustaf Hoffstedt.
– Every consumer who is lost to the unlicensed gambling market is a gambler who is not reached by the Swedish consumer protection. The increasing leakage to the unlicensed gambling market is due to two factors. On the one hand, the Swedish-licensed gambling market has been plagued by so many government restrictions that gambling consumers have grown tired and to an increased extent sought their gambling experiences elsewhere. On the other hand, the gambling law has such major shortcomings that in Sweden unlicensed gambling companies have been able to continue to offer their games to Swedish gambling consumers without hindrance. This anomaly must end. A first step to increase public control over the gambling market would be to urgently lift the temporary deposit limit for online casinos, but more needs to be done to protect the Swedish gambling license market, Hoffstedt concludes.
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