Fewer Swedes seem to be gambling, despite the reorganization of the local gambling market this past January, Sweden’s latest annual survey on gambling participation shows.
Commissioned by the Swedish Gambling Authority, the survey has been conducted annually by opinion polling expert Novus since 2013.
Novus interviewed 1,600 people in October to find that 60% of adults gambled in the past year, down 6 percentage points from 2018 and 16 percentage points from 2013. Men continued to account for the majority of Sweden’s gamblers, with 45% of all male survey respondents saying they gambled in the past 12 months. About 31% of the female participants in the survey said they gambled over the past year. Both rates showed a decline from the 2018 results.
Swedes recorded higher weekly and monthly gambling participation rates this year, with 45% of all survey respondents saying they gambled in the past month, and 31% saying they placed a wager in the past week.
Why Has Sweden’s Gambling Market Re-Regulation Created Such a Big Buzz?
About 21% of the survey’s respondents said that they did not gamble over the past 12 months. Of the Swedes who did not gamble this year, the majority cited their history of never winning as the main reason not to engage in a betting or gaming activity, with low confidence in the current market and boredom being the other two most cited reasons.
There were also survey participants who said that they opted against gambling due to excessive advertising of gaming and wagering products across Swedish media.
Lottery and Former Monopoly Remain Swedes’ Favorites
Lottery has remained the most popular gambling activity among Swedes for another year, with 75% of all gambling respondents saying they played lottery games in the past year. Other number and draw-based games followed with 50% of all respondents saying they engaged in such activities. Betting on horse racing landed a third place with a 38% participation rate.
Sports betting was popular among 21% of the survey’s respondents, while casino gambling lagged well behind at 5%.
Retail was the dominant gambling vertical with 48% of all gamblers saying they went to betting shops to wager. Mobile devices stood at 29% and desktop saw 19% of gamblers pointing it as their favorite gambling means.
Sweden’s former gambling monopolies – Svenska Spel and AB Trav och Galopp – were the most popular operators among gambling Swedes, despite the fact that the liberalization of the Swedish market opened the country to international operators.
About 63% of Swedish gamblers said they had gambled with Svenska Spel, and 17% said ATG was their preferred operator. Of the private gambling operators, bet365 led the way this year with 4% of gamblers, followed by Unibet at 3%. Kindred Group’s flagship brand was the leader among the private operators in last year’s survey.
Following the reorganization of the Swedish market, this year’s survey included a new question that established that 3% of all respondents knowingly opted to gamble on websites that were not licensed by the Swedish gambling regulator, citing better odds and existing pre-market reorganization accounts as their main reasons to break the rules.
For a fifth consecutive year, there was a decline in the number of Swedes who believe gambling operators are taking responsibility for protecting people with problem gambling behavior. This year, 37% of the survey’s respondents gave a positive answer to that question, down from 40% in 2018.
Source: Färre spelar om pengar: Allmänheten om spel 2019
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