Svenska Spel – swedish gambling monopoly – criticized by the Parliament

The Sweden’s gambling state-owned monopoly called Svenska Spel  received some harsh criticism from the survey commissioned from the parliamentary research authorities by Moderate member of parliament Tomas Tobé. According with swedish site The Local, the survey showed that Svenska Spel was targeting poor areas with its Jack Vegas slots machines. In Botkyrka, a suburb of Stockholm with low average incomes,  Svenska Spel has 52 Jack Vegas gambling machines and in Danderyd, one of Stockholm’s wealthiest suburbs, it has no Jack Vegas machines.

Tobe explained that Svenska wants “to place machines in areas with low incomes and major social problems, at the same time as avoiding areas where the opposite is true. The fact that support for gambling addicts is so low as to be next-to non-existent at the same time as the state’s own company is increasing access [to gambling] rings false.”

He also called for a privatisation of the company and the introducing of a licensing system for gambling companies.

“Sweden needs a model that ends the state’s role as a player on the market. At the same time its role as a regulator needs to be strengthened and monitoring of the gambling market needs to be made more independent,” he said.
Tobé said he and party colleagues from Gävleborg would put a proposal to abolish the gambling monopoly to the Moderate Party’s conference in October.