Tobe concluded that Svenska Spel's strategy involves “placing machines in low income areas with major social problems, while at the same time avoiding areas where the opposite is true. The fact that support for gambling addicts is almost non-existent while the state's own company is increasing access to gambling is questionable,” he said. Svenska Spel CEO Jesper Karrbrink (pictured) defended the company’s position, stating, “Our job is to provide safe and responsible options in the areas where the players are. It is quite possible that there are more people interested in playing on these kind of machines in Botkyrka than in Danderyd. It is therefore quite natural that our machines should be situated there.” Tobe believes the survey’s findings prove that Sweden’s gaming should be privatised. “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. In March of this year, the EFTA court in Luxembourg upheld Norway’s monopoly on gaming machines, stating that a monopoly operator, controlled by competent authorities could control gaming better than the private sector. However, should it be proved that Svenska Spel has been targeting deprived areas, the court could find differently in the Swedish case. Sweden is in the process of privatising some fifty-plus state-owned assets including world famous Absolut Vodka, Nordea Bank and the telecom group TeliaSonera.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend