subject: Swedish Gambling [print this page] Swedish Gambling Swedish Gambling
Sweden is one of those European countries where gambling is legal in three main forms. One is casino gambling, one is the lottery and the third is horse racing. What sets Swedish casinos or basically gambling as a whole in Sweden apart from other European countries is that all sorts of legalized gambling is controlled by a state run monopoly. This was the result of a merger between two of Sweden's largest lottery companies, namely Tipstjanst and Svenska Penninglotteriet. This event occurred thirteen years ago in 1997, and the newly formed company was named Svenska Spel.
The Svenska Spel has proved over the years that it is capable of drawing in huge crowds of people, including tourists who visit the country. However the fact that it has monopolized the Swedish gambling market is a big source of contention in the European Union which is in favour of Sweden opening the gate to letting other countries invest in the highly lucrative Swedish gambling market. The European Union has in fact put a great deal of pressure on the Swedish government to allow non-Swedish companies to come in and take part in the gambling market but the country's government has to this point so far refused to do so.
In addition to this, in spite of strong opposition to the gambling monopoly of Svenska Spel from various political factions, the Swedish courts have so far every time ruled in favor of it. The opposition has often put down the suggestion that the monopoly be abolished in favor of a regulated betting market so that any number of private companies could apply for gaming or casino licenses but to no avail. Their reasoning is that the monopoly has been placed into existence and kept there because it is in the public's best interest. However Svenska Spel however has been heavily criticized over the last couple of years for spending a horrendous amount on advertising which it has vehemently defended, saying it was all necessary.
In recent years, the Svenska casino introduced and started its Svenska online casino. Since its inception, it has been immensely popular and Swedish players have flocked to the website to try and make their luck work. The Svenska online casino is like a gateway to some of Sweden's best known and loved casinos including the Spin casino, Europa casino, Carnival casino and many more. Every type of game imaginable is available in just one place. This includes Black Jack, Baccarat, Roulette, Craps, slots, video poker and several variations of the jackpot. It is the online poker section though that easily dominates in terms of customer crowd.
A report showed that the Svenska casino was so popular that sales in only the first nine months equalled over thirty-one millions euros. The same report however showed on a different note that it seemed as if more and more Swedish players were beginning to get addicted to visiting the casino with there being over 110,000 visitors to the online casino every day since the day it started in business.
