BID TO COOL DOWN SWEDISH ONLINE GAMBLING MARKETING

22 June 2007

Report on suggested rules for marketing requested

Sweden's finance minister Anders Borg and colleague Public Health minister Maria Larsson have used the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet to argue for an end to aggressive marketing in the country's gambling industry, dominated by the highly successful government monopoly Svenske Spel.

Borg wrote that a new report is to be ordered into rules governing the Swedish gambling market, an area that is already being eyed by the European Commission as non-compliant with EU principles of free movement of trade and services.

Borg and Larsson wrote of their concern for the social implications of gambling, saying: "Gambling addiction is on a par with alcoholism: an addictive behaviour that is very difficult to break."

Although he regarded the enquiry as positive progress, Tomas Tobe, a spokesman for the Moderate Party in the Swedish Parliament who has been vocal in calling for an end to the monopoly and a more open market said it did not go far enough.

"This proposal will do very little to appease the EU Commission and Sweden can expect a summons to the European Court of Justice and a subsequent conviction," he said.

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