Sweden to privatize online gambling monopoly
27th May, 2008
The Swedish government has been under pressure to comply with EU regulations and is now considering privatizing parts of Svenska Spel, its online gambling provider.
Many believe this move to sell off parts of their government-owned online gambling provider is an attempt to avoid a law suit from the European Court of Justice.
“The legal advice to the Swedish Ministry of Finance is that the country is very close to breaking EU rules on the provision of cross-border services and getting closer to being asked to appear in front of the European Court of Justice,” said Petter Nylander, chief executive of Unibet. “The first investigation into gambling was cancelled and the latest gaming inquiry is due to submit its findings in mid-december.”
Reports said that games that have a lower risk of leading to gambling addiction might be sold off. The problem, as Nylander pointed out, is that “low-risk” games have not been defined by the inquiry commission.
“They originally included lottery games and are now looking at including sports betting and poker (as being low risk), which Svenska Spel has been very successful at recently. Overall though, they have not truly defined what they consider to be harmful or not,” Nylander said.
Anders Borg, the Swedish Minister of Finance, said that the question that should be asked is whether other operators should offer less harmful games to players or if Svenska Spel should continue offering them.
By Michael
