{"id":75108,"date":"2018-04-11T12:30:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T19:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=75108"},"modified":"2018-04-11T11:09:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T18:09:03","slug":"swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sweden\u2019s state-owned gambling monopoly Svenska Spel will not be privatized, despite the government\u2019s plan to break up the longstanding monopoly by introducing a licensing system that would, for the first time, be open to private operators.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75116\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75116\" data-style=\"width: 3171px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75116 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete.jpg\" alt=\"Svenska Spel not for sale \" width=\"3171\" height=\"2114\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-75116\"class=\"text-description\">Peter Alling of the Kindred Group believes that Sweden\u2019s liberalization of the market will not create a level playing field between new licensees and Svenska Spel, the longstanding gambling monopoly. (Image: The Gambler Magazine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The government published its full draft law on gambling on Monday, which has now been submitted to the country\u2019s parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Having fought a losing battle against private online gambling companies for the best part of two decades, Sweden has decided instead to bring them under its regulatory influence and tax them. The bill is entitled the \u201cRe-regulation of the Gambling Market.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>&#8220;Unregulated gambling has taken over and gambling is used in criminal activities,\u201d Minister for Public Administration Ardalan Shekarabi said in a statement. \u201cIt is 14 years since the first of a line of gambling inquiries was appointed. It is now time for us to move from words to action and regain control of the Swedish gambling market.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong>Three Sectors <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Operators have largely reacted positively to the news, but the decision not to sell Svenska Spel was criticized this week by the Kindred Group\u2019s Head of Public Affairs Nordics, Peter Alling, who believes the state-owned gambling company will have a competitive advantage in the market.<\/p>\n<p>The Kindred Group is one of several Swedish successful online gambling companies exiled to Malta due to its home country\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/egba-moves-in-to-change-swedish-national-gambling-monopoly\"> inhospitable online gambling laws.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The proposal to the Parliament, made public Monday 9 April, reveals \u2026that the government has no intention to take necessary actions to ensure a fair and competitive market, but instead to protect the dominant position of the state-owned operator Svenska Spel,\u201d he said in an official statement.<\/p>\n<p>The bill proposes the establishment of three sectors of the market: the so-called \u201cCompetitive Sector\u201d for the newly licensed operators; the &#8220;Public Interest Sector,&#8221; composed of charitable forms operating lottery and bingo products; and the State Enterprise Sector, operating land-based casinos and gaming machines. Svenska Spel\u2019s operations will straddle all three sectors.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Divided Market<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe reform intends to keep the market divided in one-part open to competition and one part exclusive to NGOs and governmental operator Svenska Spel,\u201d complained Alling. \u201cSince the current entity, Svenska Spel is to act on both the exclusive and the competitive market it is, from a competition law point of view, extremely important that Svenska Spel is split into two independent entities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Ministry of Enterprise (owner of Svenska Spel) and the Ministry of Finance (responsible for legislation on gambling) has so far acted in opposite directions.&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Here, the government still has a responsibility it can\u2019t avoid. Failure to deal professionally with the split, not adhering to basic competition regulations, will seriously endanger the outcome of the reform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill proposes charging new licensed operators a tax rate of 18 percent, while the non-profit sector will remain exempt from tax. \u00a0If enacted, the new regime would come into force on January 1, 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sweden\u2019s state-owned gambling monopoly Svenska Spel will not be privatized, despite the government\u2019s plan to break up the longstanding monopoly by introducing a licensing system that would, for the first time, be open to private operators. The government published its full draft law on gambling on Monday, which has now been submitted to the country\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":75116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sweden will open its online gambling market up for the first time to licensed international operators but its refusal to privatize Svenska Spel has led to criticism that it is not offering a level playing field.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sweden will open its online gambling market up for the first time to licensed international operators but its refusal to privatize Svenska Spel has led to criticism that it is not offering a level playing field.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-11T19:30:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-11T18:09:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/\",\"name\":\"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-11T19:30:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-11T18:09:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Sweden will open its online gambling market up for the first time to licensed international operators but its refusal to privatize Svenska Spel has led to criticism that it is not offering a level playing field.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"ter Alling of the Kindred Group believes that Sweden\u2019s liberalization of the market will not create a level playing field between new licensees and Svenska Spel, the longstanding gambling monopoly. (Image: The Gambler Magazine)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legislation\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legislation\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms","description":"Sweden will open its online gambling market up for the first time to licensed international operators but its refusal to privatize Svenska Spel has led to criticism that it is not offering a level playing field.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms","og_description":"Sweden will open its online gambling market up for the first time to licensed international operators but its refusal to privatize Svenska Spel has led to criticism that it is not offering a level playing field.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2018-04-11T19:30:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-04-11T18:09:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Casino.org Staff Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casino.org Staff Writer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/","name":"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2018-04-11T19:30:48+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-11T18:09:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77"},"description":"Sweden will open its online gambling market up for the first time to licensed international operators but its refusal to privatize Svenska Spel has led to criticism that it is not offering a level playing field.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pete-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707,"caption":"ter Alling of the Kindred Group believes that Sweden\u2019s liberalization of the market will not create a level playing field between new licensees and Svenska Spel, the longstanding gambling monopoly. (Image: The Gambler Magazine)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/swedish-gambling-monopoly-svenska-spel-not-for-sale-despite-sweeping-market-reforms\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legislation","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legislation\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Swedish Gambling Monopoly Svenska Spel Not for Sale, Despite Sweeping Market Reforms"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77","name":"Casino.org Staff Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Casino.org Staff Writer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}