Operator News
Swedish National Audit Office Riksrevisionen slams Spelinspektionen for lack of inspections
By Phil - 22 October 2024
The Swedish National Audit Office, Riksrevisionen, has said the Swedish Gambling Authority conducts too few inspections of the companies operating in the Swedish gambling market.
In addition, the choice of who is to be subject to supervision is not made on the basis of a well-founded risk analysis, and the authority does not follow up if the deficiencies complained of are corrected.
Riksrevisionen said: “In 2019, a new gambling law was introduced with a licensing system that, among other things, made it possible for commercial companies to legally direct online gambling to the Swedish market. An important purpose was that gambling should take place under public control. The Swedish Gambling Authority was given responsibility for supervising the industry.”
The Swedish National Audit Office’s audit shows that Spelinspektionen‘s supervision is not sufficiently effective. The biggest shortcoming is that the authority carries out too few inspections. This applies to both the licensed and the unlicensed market.
“It is particularly important to supervise forms of gambling that are associated with great risks. This includes commercial online gambling and betting, which should be controlled much more. It is also important to exclude illegal gambling,” said Claudia Gardberg Morner, Director General of the Swedish National Audit Office.
Riksrevisionen said the shortcomings are partly due to the priorities that the Swedish Gambling Authority has chosen to make. The authority emphasises that new government assignments and other activities crowd out the opportunities to conduct supervision to the desired extent.
“In this situation, it is particularly important that supervisory resources are used where they are most useful. To succeed in this, the authority needs to base its supervisory planning on a systematic risk analysis. That is not the case today,” says Hedvig Tängdén, project manager for the audit.
Another significant shortcoming is that the Swedish Gambling Authority does not follow up on the results of its supervisory decisions; Only one follow-up inspection has been carried out in the last five years. The authority therefore does not know whether the alleged errors have been rectified and thus lacks knowledge of whether the resources are being used in a cost-effective manner.
In order to maintain the legitimacy of the system, it is important to have an effective sanction system with quick and tangible reactions in the event of violations of the regulations. However, supervision is made more difficult by the fact that the Gambling Act is unclear, which has opened up for a grey gambling market in Sweden.
“The government should clarify in which cases online gambling requires a license. This would facilitate the supervisory work,” said Claudia Gardberg Morner, Director General of the Swedish National Audit Office.
