Truth and fiction in the Supreme Administrative Court's application of the principle of proportionality in gambling cases.
Swedish governments have for over 30 years pursued a gambling policy that has more or less aimed to strengthen the Treasury. A key element of its policy has been to grant the state-owned and controlled gaming companies Svenska Spel and ATG considerable commercial leeway.
Through expansive advertising campaigns, the companies have contributed to a societal condition that welcomes gambling as something almost socially beneficial and fun. We all remember how a cavalcade of state directors handed over grotesquely large checks to satisfied finance ministers. The advertising slogans have championed the view that it would almost be more laudable to become wealthy by winning the Lotto or Harry Boy jackpots than by thrift and entrepreneurship.
In the early 2000s, this spirit of the age would prove to be the perfect storm for the infant gaming industry developing on the Internet. The rest is history, as they say.
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Myth and reality...