Svenska Spel end Gambling Monopoly
This past weekend, the ruling party in Sweden voted to end support for their government’s monopoly on Sweden’s online gambling industry, and also to privatize Svenska Spel. The European Commission, headed by former Irish finance minister Charlie McCreevy (58), has been pressing Sweden to open up its gambling monopolies, and threatening a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to enforce compliance with the Union’s requirement for the free movement of trade and services. Delegates at the Moderate Party conference in Gavle were told by parliament member Tomas Tobe that Sweden must abolish the current monopoly and join England and Italy in regulating the industry. And to counter balance a possible increase in gambling, Tobe said funds should be allocated to problem gambling research and to establish risk-minimization controls. The Moderate’s decision to privatize Svenska Spel is shared by most other political parties. Now only the Christian Democrats are opposed to regulation and privatising Svenska Spel. 
Svenska Spel generated over Sweden’s four casinos and sports-betting monopoly took in 4.8 billion kroner (USD $753 million, nearly 523 million Euros, or GBP 364.6 million) in 2006, more than a quarter of the 18 billion-kroner national budget surplus. The company may become publicly listed after privatization. It is rumored that it could be valued as high as Euro 7 billion, which would make it one of the major companies in the European gambling market.