Poker News – According to a note published by Sweden’s monopolistic company Svenska Spel, the package of “responsible gambling measures” implemented only six months ago resulted in a 6.2 percent profit loss.
According to a report on 2014 Q1, “net gaming revenues decreased by SEK 186 million compared with the same period last year, moving from SEK 2.480 million to 2.293 million” and brought the Swedish gambling group an operating profit of SEK 1.243 million — SEK 83 million smaller than in 2013.
“The decrease in revenues was expected,” commented Svenska Spel CEO Lennart Käll, who also added that the trend is supposed to continue during the coming months. Käll also explained that Svenska Spel adopted “a series of measures to cut cost for SEK 36 million and to give players an even better gaming experience.”
Talking to PokerNews about Svenska Spel’s commitment to fighting against compulsive gambling, the company’s head of Corporate Social Responsibility Zenita Strandänger said that “Svenska Spel works for the prevention of problem gambling.”
“We do that by offering different gaming tools — we are restrictive in our marketing of certain games that are considered problematic from a gaming responsibility perspective. We use education and information to explain the risks of gambling, and we support research.”
Among the reasons that seem to have played a great role in the decline of Svenska Spel’s profits is the decision the company took to cut all bonus and promotional campaigns, a particular measure that was adopted in order to tackle after European institutions started to criticize the way Sweden’s gambling market developed under the monopoly controlled by the same Svenska Spel.
