Sweden announces audit of gambling regulator

Sweden’s National Audit Office will review the effectiveness of the regulator’s supervision of the Swedish gambling market.

Sweden.- It’s been announced that Sweden’s National Audit Office will review the performance of the country’s gambling regulator Spelinspektionen. The review of the regulator’s effectiveness comes after the introduction of new regulations this year, including new supplier licences and more enforcement powers for Spelinspektionen to tackle unlicensed operators.

The audit office said that Sweden’s gambling policy is intended to promote the development of a safe gambling market that minimises consumer harms and criminal activity. It intends to evaluate whether Spelinspektionen’s role has met these goals.

It has yet to detail the expected timing of the audit, but the office said it would follow international auditing standards and may employ qualitative methods including interviews and document studies as well as quantitative analysis of data and statistics.

Licensed gambling operators continue to raise concerns about the low channelisation in Sweden, with a June report from trade association BOS finding that only 77 per cent of consumers used regulated operators. That compares to a goal of 90 per cent.

See also: Svenska Spel to restructure land-based gaming business