Sweden’s Gambling Industry Revenue Soars Following Privatization

17.03.2020, 18:42

The Swedish Gambling Authority, or Spelinspektionen, released a report that the country’s gambling industry enjoyed a spike in revenue in 2019. The SGA does not actually have any official information but instead is using analysts’ best estimates. Here is what we can reasonably expect from Sweden’s 2019 casino revenue:

• Lottery and vending machines brought in a combined €557 million in revenue
• Cruise gambling and online gambling brought in a combined €1.3 billion
• Land-based and online gambling brought in a combined €2.3 billion

The analysts’ figures are only based on the reports of licensed companies; in reality, the total revenue may be much higher due to the operation of unlicensed venues. 

 To understand the significance of this, let’s take a closer look at the history of gambling in Sweden. In 1934, Sweden’s gambling industry was monopolized by the state — this means that the government took total control over it. Their purpose in doing so was to reduce illegal betting activities; in order to gamble, Swedes would have to visit a state-owned casino on land (of which there were only four). 

Of course, as an added bonus, all of the gambling profit went directly to Sweden’s national treasury. Some Swedes sought to get around these regulations by playing on ships that were sailing over international waters. 

In 2018, the Swedish government finally proposed opening up the gambling industry for private vendors, along with introducing a licensing system. Now, you might be wondering, why would the government do that? Well, according to EU law, it was totally legal for Swedes to gamble using online casinos. 

So, the government was finding it more and more difficult to control the gambling industry since they were losing their customers to international operators. They attempted to discourage their citizens from using online international casinos by prohibiting the casinos from advertising on Swedish television commercials. Only online casinos licensed by Sweden were allowed to advertise their services. However, the popularity of the international online option still continued to grow.

On January 1st, 2019, the new laws went into effect; we can reasonably assume that the drastic increase in both licensed land-based casinos and online operators. Gambling online and on ships still brought in more revenue than the privatized land-based casinos; this could be because people have gotten used to the convenience of gambling online, or perhaps they love being able to make wagers while floating through the ocean.

 It has only been one year since the Swedish government de-monopolized the gambling industry, so we should be patient and see how the revenue trends over the next few years. Perhaps the situation will even out over time.