Gambling in Sweden: revenue falls in Q3

The decline in land-based gambling caused revenue to slide in the third quarter.

Sweden.- The gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has reported that revenue from gambling in Sweden reached SEK6.66bn (€574m) in Q3. That’s a decline of 1.3 per cent year-on-year and the lowest total since Q1 of last year.

The drop was due to a fall in land-based gambling revenue. Online gambling revenue was up by 1.5 per cent year-on-year at SEK4.33bn, but that wasn’t enough to make up for the drop in revenue from other sources, particularly Svenska Spel’s land-based casino brand Casino Cosmopol, which saw revenue fall by 76.5 per cent. This was the lowest monthly revenue haul on record for Casino Cosmopol other than during the Covid-19 pandemic but the result was not unexpected since Svenska Spel permanently closed two of its three venues at the start of the year.

Gambling revenue from the national lottery and physical slots was also down, however. Revenue from this sector fell by 2.7 per cent to SEK1.36bn, although it remains the second-largest segment. Revenue from non-profit games and other lotteries fell by 0.6 per cent, while revenue from community games and bingo halls was flat and restaurant casino revenue fell by 6 per cent.

Spelinspektionen also provided an update on self-exclusion data. As of the end of Q3, there were 118,000 people registered with the Spelpaus system, a rise of 5.9 per cent sequentially.

Last week, Spelinspektionen welcomed the Swedish government’s decision to propose that the country sign the Macolin Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions. It says the move will enhance the country’s work against match fixing. 

Sweden’s Ministry of Social Affairs has said that the country meets the requirements to join the convention without the need for any constitutional amendments to ratify its framework. That would allow accession without requiring parliamentary approval.