Swedish Report Blames Foreign Online Poker Sites for Addiction - 04-12-08

April 12 - Stick to the local company!  That was the clear message coming out of one-year report commissioned by the Swedish government to determine the gambling habits of players, and whether those players who gambled at foreign poker sites were more at risk of developing problematic habits.

The results of the report alleged that those players who did not limit their games to the state-run Svenska Spel poker site were twice as much at risk to develop a gambling addiction.

Commissioned by the country's finance minister, Anders Borg in April last year to look at the issue of Swedish online poker, the report revealed that 200,000 Swedes regularly played poker online. When looking at the last quarter of the year, it was shown that 27% of these players stuck to Svenska Spel exclusively. Another 25% played at Svenska Spel and another site, while 47% said that they only played at foreign sites.

In making its point about developing problem gambling, the report showed that 11% of those Swedish online poker players who played only at Svenska Spel developed gambling problems, while that number more than doubled to 27% among players who played at foreign poker sites.

It is thought that the results of the report will serve as a basis to renew Svenska Spel's exclusive license to operate in the Swedish online poker market. Authorization for the company to run the only official site in the country was extended to June 30th, 2008, pending the results of the report.

It was also revealed that the majority of Swedish gamblers approved of the regulated Svenska Spel site, including its deposit and time limits.

Submit This Article To Your Social Network
Furl	Simpy	Y! MyWeb	OnlyWire
Del.icio.us	Digg	Google	Spurl
StumbleUpon	Redit	Technocrati