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SWEDISH GAMBLING MONOPOLY SCORES BIGTIME
Svenska Spel posts record profits
Svenska Spel AB, the Swedish government-owned and licensed gaming company, posted record profits for 2006 this week, with a healthy contribution from the online poker division, which opened in March last year.
In total, Svenska Spel made a $685 million profit during 2006, the company's best result ever. According to CEO Jesper Karrbrink, the online poker section has been extremely successful.
"It has really fulfilled its purpose to bring home a big part of the Swedes' unregulated poker playing to a responsible environment within the country's borders," said Karrbrink in an interview with the newspaper Dagens Industri.
Even though Svenska Spel is doing well, Karrbrink wants to see changes on the Swedish gaming market. "New gambling legislation through which all types of gambling are regulated is needed. Whether it's through a state monopoly, or a licence system where we compete with privately owned companies is up to the politicians to decide."
"With this record profit to back us up, we will feel pretty comfortable either way," Karrbrink said.
SPOKANE PACT MAY EXPAND WASHINGTON GAMING
Washington state has a reputation for being strongly anti-online gambling....it doesn't extend to other forms of the pastime, though
Washington state may regard online gamblers as criminals, but it has a quite different view of tribal gambling judging from developments in the state recently where the rebellious Spokane tribe, after years of asserting its rights to run on-reservation casinos has finally received the approval of Governor Chris Gregoire and her officials.
The state Gambling Commission's approval last week of a tribal-state compact with the Spokane Tribe of Indians allows the tribe to operate up to 4 700 gambling machines in as many as five casinos no closer than 25 miles.
Although the remoteness of the tribe's large reservation would likely limit its operations below that number of devices, the commission expects to agree to similar compacts with five other tribes with more lucrative markets, include the Puyallups, who have casinos in Tacoma and Fife. Puyallups are seeking an increase in the 3 000 machines it currently operates.
"Negotiations with all the other tribes are centering around similar terms and conditions as the Spokane tribe," Tom Fitzsimmons, the governor's chief of staff, told the News Tribune newspaper.
Fitzsimmons said other tribes are not likely to get permission to operate 4 700 machines, largely because they don't have reservations as large at the Spokanes. He predicted, however, that the slot inventory at tribal casinos statewide could jump from 18 225 to about 25 000 devices.
Another feature of the Spokane deal that other tribes could get is the power to raise betting limits from $5 to $20 on 15 percent of the machines.
Twenty tribes currently operate 25 casinos in the state, generating about $1.2 billion a year.
The Gambling Commission voted 6-3 on Friday to endorse the deal. Governor Gregoire is expected to sign the compact and send it to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which also is expected to give its approval.
"The Spokane tribe clearly needs the opportunities provided by this compact," said Spokane Tribal Secretary Gerald Nicodemus. "This compact will be the best chance to impact our tribe's future in a historic way."
The Spokanes are the last tribe in Washington that runs casinos without a gambling compact with the state. The tribe needs the compact to get financing for a casino-hotel and to ask the federal government for permission to build an off-reservation casino.
Under terms the compact, gambling profits would be used to support tribal government services like health care, education and housing. The agreement is similar to the one between the state and the nearby Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
The Spokanes have operated casinos without a compact, in defiance of the law, with disputes sometimes spilling over into court.
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Originally Posted by jetset
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