Politicians May Kill Swedish Gambling Monopoly to better tax revenue

Swedish politicians yet again began making bold statements regarding the removal of the country’s gaming monopoly Svenska Spel, licensed under Swedish gambling laws.

According to online gambling news in Sweden, the Swedish monopoly controls all games of chance within the country including horse racing, sports betting, casino, bingo and poker.

MP Peter Johnsson, a Social Democrat, spoke at the recent Swedish gamin conference in Visby and outlined an idea for an open, taxed and regulated Swedish online gaming market which would include foreign gaming companies.

Many international companies have been eager to provide online bingo games in Sweden as well as other forms of online gambling.

Sweden has an online gambling market that doesn’t work and must put its foot down if we want to incorporate other companies that are perceived as illegal in today’s market. If Sweden wants to remain competitive in the future we must look beyond Svenska Spel, which is a failure, “stated MP Johnsson.

To add more fuel to the fire, Social Democrat MP's Tommy Waidelich & Berit Högman have recently stated in a join press release that the current system was created “when gambling meant little more than buying occasional lottery tickets or a raffle in a public park, and is no elastic enough to handle residents gaming at online casinos in Sweden."

The Social Democrats are interested in opening the gambling market up to foreign operators since the vast majority of Swedish online gamblers have been playing at unlicensed and untaxed foreign casinos rather than Svenska Spel’s online offering.

The latest survey indicates that over one million Swedes gamble online at foreign based casinos due to a lack of ‘modern and exciting games’ provided by Svenska Spel.