Swedish Gambling Revenue Rose in the Third Quarter Despite a Deposit Cap

Swedish gaming profits climbed in the third quarter despite a limit on deposits – iGB

In the third quarter of 2020, Swedish gambling income increased by 2.0% year-over-year and 1.3% quarter-over-quarter to SEK 6.04 billion (£525.4 million/€591.1 million/$702.3 million). Online earnings also rose despite the contentious SEK 5,000 casino deposit limit.

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Swedish gambling revenue rose in the third quarter despite a deposit cap
Online casino and sports wagering revenue increased by 2.1% quarter-over-quarter and 5.8% year-over-year, reaching SEK 3.69 billion.

The move was criticized by organizations such as the operator association Branscheforenigen för Onlinespel (BOS) and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), despite the nation implementing a SEK 5,000 deposit limit on online casino games from July 2.

Earlier this month, the Swedish government revealed that it plans to extend the measure until June 2021 and has entered into discussions on the extension.

While Spelinspektionen had previously warned that the move could fuel the black market and that it would be “impossible to enforce across all operators,” it said in response to the consultations that the extension was “reasonable” given the circumstances that led to the implementation of the deposit limit.

Meanwhile, the Swedish national lottery and monopoly, as well as land-based machine gambling monopoly, generated SEK 1.47 billion in revenue, up 14.0% from the previous quarter and 7.7% from 2019. According to the Swedish national lottery’s own third-quarter results, it generated SEK 1.

Lottery earnings reached eighteen billion Swedish kronor, while Las Vegas slot machines brought in one hundred seventy-seven million Swedish kronor. Sports and casino departments generated four hundred ninety million Swedish kronor, while other sources contributed seventy-two million Swedish kronor.

All Casino Cosmopol land-based locations were shut down for the entire quarter, so the operator did not receive any earnings from its land-based locations. Since these are the only land-based casinos in Sweden, the entire country did not generate any earnings from this vertical in the third quarter.

Non-profit lottery earnings decreased by seventeen point five percent from the record nine hundred forty-six million Swedish kronor in the second quarter of two thousand twenty, but still increased by five point four percent year-on-year.

Both bingo and restaurant casinos recovered from a weak second quarter, with bingo earnings up twenty-three point seven percent quarter-on-quarter to forty-seven million Swedish kronor, while restaurant casino earnings rose thirty-two point four percent to forty-five million Swedish kronor. However, these figures are still the second lowest since the Swedish Gambling Authority (Spelinspektionen) started recording these figures in early two thousand nineteen, with bingo down twenty point three percent year-on-year and restaurant casino earnings down twenty-four point seven percent.

The regulator added that while it is impossible to accurately measure the size of the unregulated market, H2 Gambling Capital estimates it to be between six hundred twenty-seven million and seven hundred forty million Swedish kronor. Last week, a survey commissioned by Spelinspektionen found that only five percent of Swedes know how to check if an operator is licensed.

As of the end of the quarter, the number of people who had excluded themselves from gambling using the self-exclusion tool Spelpaus was slightly over fifty-six thousand, up seven percent from the end of the second quarter. Spelinspektionen added that by mid-November, this number had risen to just under fifty-eight thousand.

The Swedish Gaming Authority’s inquiry also discovered that 43% of participants were unfamiliar with “Spelpaus,” prompting operators to declare a fresh awareness initiative for the instrument.

As of this month, Sweden boasts 100 authorized gambling operators, with 72 possessing online gambling permits.

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