May 27 - The Chief Executive of Unibet, Peter Nylander, has remarked that the
only reason the Swedish government is making the effort to partially privatize
its monopoly company, Svenska Spel, is that it is it afraid of being
sued by the European Commission.
The European Commission? recently warned the government to take the
necessary steps to change the current Swedish online gambling policy or
face legal consequences.
Nylander explained that news about changes in the Swedish online gambling
market was still not clear, nor had the special commission set up to investigate
the issue come out with any well defined conclusions. While the media hinted
this week that the parts of Svenska Spel that were considered less "risky" may
be privatized, there was still no clear definition of which games would be
included in the decision.
Nylander said: "They originally included lottery games and are now looking at
sports betting and poker (as being low risk), which Svenska Spel has been very
successful at recently. Overall though, they have not truly defined what they
consider to be harmful or not."
Peter Nylander explained how far the European Commission had already gone in
its efforts to bring an end to the Swedish online gambling monopoly. "The legal
advice to the Swedish Ministry of Finance is that the country is very close to
breaking EU rules on the provision of cross-border services and is getting
closer to being asked to appear before the European Court of Justice. The first
investigation into gambling was cancelled and the latest gaming inquiry is due
to submit its findings in mid-December."
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