Svenska Spel has been in the news a lot, but rarely for the purpose of praise.  Svenska Spel is the company owned by the Swedish government that has notoriously been given the monopoly on online casinos and Internet gambling in the country.  However, the European Lotteries and Toto Association have seen fit to give Svenska Spel a service award.

State run monopolies are generally frowned upon in the online gambling community.  This is especially true in Europe.  When states protect their gambling monopolies, online casinos do not have a fair chance to compete for available gambling dollars.  The Swedish government has defended giving the monopoly to Svenska Spel as the only way to regulate online casinos and protecting Swedish consumers.

Whether that is actually true is debatable, but whatever Svenska Spel is doing is working.  The European Lotteries and Toto Association is a representative for state run gaming and lotteries.  The association developed the European Responsible Gaming Standard test.  Svenska Spel stands out as the first gaming operator to meet the standards. 

“This is once again major recognition of our responsible gambling work," said Svenska Spel CEO, Meta Persdotter.

“Last year, we received an award from the WLA, naming us as the world’s top gaming company in the field of responsible gambling. This EL accreditation further underpins our position.” 

The European Responsible Gaming Standard takes into account staff training, game structure, advertising, and marketing.  One of the most important issues in responsible gaming is increasing awareness about problem gambling and gambling addiction.  The standards test also takes into consideration how well state run online casinos encourage awareness of these problems.