Gambling in Sweden up 7% 2021, survey shows – Casino & games
An annual survey conducted by the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate showed that the number of people playing in the country has increased by 7 percent on an annual basis.
The survey was conducted in November in collaboration with the survey company SKOP.
A number of questions provided multiple-choice answers.
Of those in the sample pool of 2,192 people, three out of four – or 73% – of the participants turned out to have played in the past year, an increase of 7% from the 2020 survey.
When asked “in which places have you played in the last 12 months”, 86% of the participants said that they had played at home in the last year. A total of 20% played in a retail facility, a decrease of 5% compared to 2020, while 5% stated that they had played at their job – an increase of 1%.
These figures can be attributed to the new coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), when many personal venues were closed.
During this time, the Swedish government implemented a controversial deposit ceiling of SEK 5,000. This was extended several times, and abolished in November 2021. Earlier this month, however, the Swedish Ministry of Finance began a consultation on a lower deposit ceiling of SEK 4,000 for casinos.
In response to what is most important when playing, the probability of winning was the most popular factor with 41%. The size of the winnings was second with 36%, while controlled gaming and entertainment came in third place with 33%.
A total of 46% of respondents said they had not used an online gaming account in the last 90 days. This is up 10%. At the same time, 39% had used one account, while 12% had used two. Only 2% had used three or more accounts.
When asked if they believe that Swedish operators take responsibility for problem gambling, 35% answered “yes, to some extent” while 27% answered “no, not at all”. Elsewhere, 7% said “yes, absolutely” – a 5% reduction – while 32% said they did not know.
In addition, 59% of those surveyed knew about Sweden’s self-exclusion service, spelpaus.se, but had not used it. A total of 1% reported using it.
A majority of those surveyed – 53% – said they had seen or heard advertisements for gambling every day or every week.
In June 2021, the Swedish Ministry of Finance began a consultation on gambling advertising in the country and proposed that it should be treated with the “special moderation” attributed to alcohol advertising.