Licensed online and land-based gaming operators in Sweden had a disappointing 2023 as aggregated gross gaming revenues for the twelve-month period decreased by 1.2% year-on-year to slightly over $2.61 billion.

The Scandinavian nation’s Spelinspektionen gaming regulator revealed the annual tally from the around 100-strong club came after a fourth quarter in which aggregated turnover dropped by 3.2% year-on-year to about $684.75 million. 

Public Pain

Combining data with the country’s Skatteverket tax agency, the regulator detailed the state-owned Casino Cosmopol recorded the biggest year-on-year fall in turnover for 2023 with its around $45.78 million reckoning representing a decline of 11.4%. Compounding the frustration and the nation’s collection of publicly-owned lotteries and slot parlors saw their own aggregated annual receipts retreat by 3.6% to roughly $539.68 million.

The news wasn’t much better for commercial online gaming and sports betting firms with their annual combined revenues having fallen by 0.7% year-on-year to around $1.64 billion as analogous receipts from national lotteries and public games tumbled by 2.7% to $347.14 million. 

Optimistic Outliers

Nevertheless, the Spelinspektionen figures showed that combined 2023 sales from community games and bingo halls had improved by 9.3% year-on-year to $19.17 million while land-based commercial gaming managed to chalk up an admirable 2.2% boost in receipts to $21.68 million.

Quarterly Quandary

Regarding the fourth quarter and Spelinspektionen revealed aggregated commercial online gaming and sports betting revenues improved by 0.2% year-on-year to $423.97 million although turnover from state lotteries and slot parlors crashed by 12.5% to $134.89 million. The final three months of the year were also not kind to Stockholm’s Casino Cosmopol as its turnover fell by almost 34% to $8.86 million while the land-based commercial gaming tally was some 3.4% lower at $5.39 million.

However, aggregated fourth-quarter gross revenues from Sweden’s public games and national lotteries sector rose by 10% year-on-year to $105.98 million with the finishing tally from community games and bingo halls remaining consistent at $4.43 million.

Exclusion Escalation

Spelinspektionen finished by disclosing that slightly more than 104,000 people had signed up to its Spelpaus self-exclusion service at the end of December, which equated to a year-on-year rise of 5%.