Sweden has opened a formal inquiry aimed at strengthening protection against gambling harm among children and young adults, with a particular focus on boys and young men. The government named Zandra Milton, the chief legal officer at Karolinska Institutet, as special investigator and set a deadline of 29 February 2028 for her report.
According to Focus Gaming News, the brief is wide-ranging. It asks for a survey of how licensed and unlicensed operators market gambling, and of how children and young adults gamble across both markets. It also tells Milton to examine whether the gambling market is being used to identify and exploit vulnerable young people for criminal activity, and to propose countermeasures if that risk is found.
The assignment goes further still. It asks whether Sweden should tighten checks on the financial situation of young players, consider mandatory time limits, and look at support for people who suspend themselves through spelpaus.se. It also requires a review of lottery and casino-style features in computer games, a look at existing limits on children and young people’s access to those features, and a comparison with how other countries regulate the issue.
Officials framed the move as a response to a worsening problem. Health Minister Elisabet Lann said gambling problems are a serious and rapidly growing social problem, especially among young men. She said risky gambling among young men has doubled in a few years and affects one in five. Gender Equality Minister Nina Larsson said boys and young men are greatly overrepresented among those who develop gambling addiction, and that the share of boys with risky gambling has doubled in recent years.
The broader concern is not new. As covered in July, criticism of Svenska Spel’s player-protection stance had already kept the issue in view. Earlier research in Sweden found gambling is highly gendered, with boys gambling more often than girls, and said excessive gambling among adolescents is associated with financial problems, strained relationships, criminal behaviour, depression and a higher suicide risk. Separate research in Spain found that starting to gamble before the legal age is linked to a greater likelihood of problem gambling.
