Spelinspektionen faces criticism from Sweden’s NAO

The Swedish Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen, faced criticism from Sweden’s National Audit Office, NAO, for failures in monitoring both legal and illegal markets.

The NAO did reviews and found that Spelinspektionen “is not effective enough.” The issue is that in order to have full control of the market, the gambling authority has to systematically conduct its analysis, which is currently not being done.

Spelinspektionen general director Camilla Rosenberg commented: 

“We welcome the National Audit Office’s review and, since the reregulation, have carried out ongoing change work and still have work to do. We can look back on six very intense years with a new framework legislation, new actors, and new tasks in a completely new regulation. Several issues are still awaiting practice in court.”

The NAO highlighted that Spelinspektionen has not been following up on its supervisory decisions, which is a major concern. In fact, they’ve only conducted one follow-up in the past five years. This lack of follow-up means the regulator doesn’t know whether any mistakes have been corrected and doesn’t have a clear picture of whether its resources are being used effectively.

NAO stated:

“The shortcomings are partly due to the priorities that the Gambling Authority has chosen to make. The authority emphasises that new government assignments and other activities crowd out the possibilities to carry out supervision to the desired extent.”

NAO thinks that the government is also responsible for this issue, and it needs to strictly determine in which states the gambling operations require a license.

Spelinspektionen commented:

“In the business plan for the current year, we prioritize continued development by streamlining processes, routines, and system support, as well as the work with risk analyses/risk assessments. The authority has also made organisational changes during the year to further strengthen the environmental analysis work.”

Spelinspektionen will be working on solving the issue by enhancing its regulatory practices.

FAQs

Is gambling legal in Sweden?

Gambling is legal in Sweden but is regulated under strict laws.

What is the legal gambling age in Sweden?

The legal gambling age in Sweden is 18.