Sweden’s gaming revenues increased by almost 5% during the third quarter of 2021, where licensed gaming companies reported SEK 6.3 billion (USD 701 million) in revenues, according to the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate.

Although this is an increase of 4.7% compared with the previous year, the Scandinavian country’s gaming revenues experienced a slight decline from the second quarter, and decreased by 2.9% from SEK 6.52 billion.

This continues a downward trend that has haunted the nation since revenues rose to almost SEK 6.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2020. Q2 seemed to mark a slight turnaround just for gaming revenues to fall again during the most recent reporting period.

However, the reopening of land-based casinos was noticeable, even though it was not enough to compensate for declines felt by other segments. Casino Cosmopol, the state-owned Svenska Spel’s brick brand, saw its three properties reopen for the first time in over a year with SEK 132 million.

Land-based commercial gaming also made a modest comeback as Covid restrictions eased, with revenues climbing from SEK 8 million during the second quarter to SEK 47 million for the third quarter. But the responsibility for the lion’s share of the revenue fell on commercial online gambling and betting. Although this segment decreased by 5% from the second quarter, it amounted to more than 60% of Q3’s total revenue, to SEK 3.9 billion.

Government lotteries and slots lagged behind and reported almost SEK 1.4 billion in revenue for a distant second place, while charity lotteries, or “games for public benefit purposes”, raised SEK 803 million to take third place.

In addition to quarterly revenues, the inspection also revealed that 65,000 people were suspended from gambling at the end of the third quarter via their self-exclusion service Spelpaus.se. This is an increase of over 2% compared to the second quarter.