Svenska Spel

Really, you have to laugh your little cotton socks off.

Although, inexplicably, I can't find a link to the press release on the web, among ones which laud their brilliance in combatting problem gambling and things, I gather from other websites that Svenska Spel have fired their CEO.

This in itself is not amusing. I'm sorry for the lady. No-one wants to lose a job.

But it's when you get lines like this in news reports that you have to suppress a smile:

During Persdotter’s first quarter in charge, net gaming revenues at Svenska Spel’s online division fell 15 per cent for poker while lotteries fell 18 per cent, games fell 10 per cent and sportsbetting fell 3.5 per cent. The company however welcomed the decline as evidence of the effectiveness of newly introduced responsible gaming measures and a reduction in marketing expenditure.

On that basis, why fire your CEO for 'mixed results'?

The hypocrisy of the monopoly systems around Europe has surely never been laid barer. You're hired to introduce measures to limit gambling because it sounds good politically in defending your monopoly to the European Commission, but when you are entirely successful in doing that, you lose your job.

Let's just admit what we all always knew, that they don't want gambling limited at all: they just want the people who can profit from it limited.

In firing their CEO, Svenska Spel have just proved it.