Swedish opposition wants to sell Svenska Spel

Some opposition parties in the European country want to privatise part of state-owned Svenska Spel.

State-owned Svenska Spel has been in the spotlight for quite some time now, as some opposition parties in Sweden are in favour of privatising the gambling monopoly. As local media reported, the Moderate Party doesn’t want the state to be a regulator and an operator at the same time.

The Moderate Party is Sweden’s biggest opposition group, and when discussing the gambling monopoly Svenska Spel, it said that it wants to separate the state from the company in order to avoid the government being responsible for regulating and operating the entity, as it is believed that it would decrease the government’s credibility.

International licensed online operators have been expanding their services in Sweden and they currently control one-quarter of the overall gambling market.

Moreover, recent reports revealed by H2 Gambling Capital and Lotteriinspektionen (Swedish gambling regulator), showed that the unregulated online betting market account for a quarter of the country’s total gambling revenue. In 2017, Sweden’s market was worth €2.2 billion, while proceeds from the unregulated segment reached €544.8 million.