Recent weeks have seen GVC, Svenska Spel, and number of other online gambling operators all calling for a total ban on broadcast advertising. Svenska Spel, the former gambling monopoly in Sweden (lottery and casino games), is owned by the state of Sweden and is being forced to compete now that Sweden has opened up its online gambling market to private operators. Sweden’s former monopoly operator went further and has announced it is stopping all advertising of its online casino games for the whole of 2019. Concern is rising over the increase in “at risk” players, with television advertising believed to behind this trend. No doubt, these actions to protect players are altruistic, but perhaps there are other motivations behind these declarations too.
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