Gambling Monopoly Cannot Expand
The Swedish online casino gambling monopoly is severely questioned recently, and
surprisingly to many, the Swedish government itself encouraged Svenska Spel to
look into the effects of internet gambling over the next several months rather
than focusing on expansion plans. The Swedish government supports the gambling
monopoly, yet recently vetoed the company’s request for online casinos poker
expansion in partnership with Boss Media. Instead, the government suggests that
Svenska Spel focus inwardly until its license comes up for renewal in June 2008.
Boss Media provides online casino poker software for many of the prominent
internet poker sites in the gambling industry. Recently, Svenska Spel and Boss
Media asked the Swedish government for approval on a planned partnership that
would export online casino poker services to another country. But instead of the
approval that many anticipated, the Swedish government stressed that Svenska
Spel is itself in a precarious position because of the pressure from the
European Commission to open up the Swedish online casinos gambling monopoly to
outside gambling companies.
Svenska Spel has reported stellar profits this year, $US 215 million. This
figure is up from the same three quarters in 2006 and indicate a significant
increase in online casino gambling in the country. Part of the justification for
a state-run internet gambling monopoly lies in the fact that the government
claims that it can better recognize and prevent problem gambling.
But beyond that justification, the European Commission has noted that because
Sweden enjoys the benefits of belonging to the European Economic Area, the
country is not fairly allowing outside companies a share of the Swedish online
casino gambling market. The Commission is having similar problems with the
French monopoly on online casinos gambling.
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