The World Lottery Association’s conference in Rhodes last week recognized the Swedish state-owned gambling monopoly Svenska Spel for its commitment to responsible gambling.
Responding to the award, Svenska Spel’s acting CEO Anders Hägg said he was delighted to receive recognition for the heavy investment the firm has made in the field, whilst Anders Borg, Sweden’s Finance Minister said he was proud of the company.
Established in 2008 during the WLA’s previous conference in Singapore the award was established to encourage the industry’s work with responsible gaming. The prize, known as The WLA Award for Responsible Gaming Excellence, is awarded to the company that represents ‘best practice’ within the area of responsible gaming.
Arch Gleason, the WLA president and Mike Randall, the jury’s chairman, announced that the prize this year would go to Svenska Spel which “….overall shows first class behavior in the area of responsible gaming.”
The jury consisted of a group of experts in Corporate Social Responsibility, all from other industries such as banking and trade and industry.
In accepting the award, Anders Hägg said, “We are incredibly pleased and proud. In recent years many gaming companies around the world have invested a lot in developing gaming responsibility programs, so competition for this prize has been tough.”
Margareta Winberg, Svenska Spel’s Chairwoman said: “Our brief from the government clearly points out social responsibility as the main purpose of Svenska Spel’s operation and this is why it obviously feels great that independent international experts have verified that we are currently leading the development in this important area. It is a major recognition and an incentive for us to become even better.”
Svenska Spel also won first prize for the best training programmed in the gaming agent/retailer sub-category.