Svenska Spel to Maintain Gambling Monopoly despite Election Promise

It’s fairly commonplace in politics: Pre-election promises are bandied about by the dozen, with vote-hungry candidates offering up platforms and programs voters are desperate to see.

Post-election, however, it can become a different tune. Politicians from all parties backtrack, soften and often completely reverse their pre-election positions when the votes have been cast and they’re safely ensconced in their seats.

That seems to be the case in Sweden, according to economic journal Veckans Affдrer, as Finance Minister Anders Borg is expected to perform a 360 on his party’s pre-election promise to abolish the state gambling monopoly.

Svenska Spel is a cash cow for the government, raking in a net profit of Ђ157 million ($212 million) from revenue of Ђ260 million in the first quarter of 2007 alone.

That kind of money is apparently hard to turn your back on, at least for the alliance of middle and right-wing political parties who took office last year, partly on the strength of that election promise.

The Swedish finance department is actually, according to Veckans Affдrer, now working on new legislation that will open up the Swedish gambling market for private companies through a licensing system.

The catch: licensing conditions would be so harsh it would be unlikely any gaming operator would be interested, ostensibly maintaining the government monopoly and the lucrative income for the Swedish government.

The one downside for the government, however: despite the monopoly, Svenska Spel will have to reduce their marketing presence and restrict development of new games to comply with the European Commission’s recent rulings on state gaming monopolies.