Sweden Appoints a Youth Gambling Inquiry as Risky Play Among Young Men Doubles

The government has commissioned a special investigator to map gambling among children and young adults, review operators' marketing on both the licensed and unlicensed markets, and propose new protections, with a report due by 29 February 2028. The health minister says risky gambling among young men has doubled in a few years and one in five is affected.

• Zandra Milton, chief legal officer at the Karolinska Institutet, has been appointed special investigator by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
• The inquiry will map gambling habits and marketing exposure among children and young adults across licensed and unlicensed operators, and examine whether the gambling market is used to recruit vulnerable young people into crime
• It will look at lottery and casino features in video games, at support for people suspended through the Spelpaus self-exclusion register, and at mandatory time limits and financial checks for young players
• Any new measure must be weighed against the risk of pushing play to operators without a Swedish licence, the government said
• The report is due by 29 February 2028, and the announcement follows an industry call last week for the regulator to rethink its safer-gambling rules

Three Ministers, One Investigator and a 2028 Deadline

The Swedish government has established an inquiry to propose measures reducing the harm caused by gambling among children and young adults, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs said on Friday. Zandra Milton, chief legal officer at the Karolinska Institutet, the medical university in Solna, has been appointed special investigator.

Health Minister Elisabet Lann framed the problem in numbers. "In just a few years there has been a doubling of risky gambling among young men, and one in five is affected," she said, according to the ministry's statement. "We therefore need to strengthen protection and prevent gambling from leading to ill health, debt or being drawn into crime."

Financial Markets Minister Niklas Wykman, whose department oversees the gambling market, said a safe and sound market requires "both the state and the gambling companies" to take responsibility. Gender Equality Minister Nina Larsson said boys and young men are heavily overrepresented among those who develop gambling addiction and that the share of boys with risky gambling has doubled in recent years: "Preventing young men from getting caught up in problematic gambling is an important gender equality issue."

The Terms of Reference Reach Well Beyond Licensed Operators

The investigator's brief, as set out in the statement, is broad. She is to compile knowledge on gambling among children and young adults and propose measures that strengthen protection, with a particular focus on boys and young men. She is to map marketing from both unlicensed and licensed gambling companies, and where necessary propose further measures to reduce exposure. She is to map the gambling habits of children and young adults on the licensed and unlicensed markets alike.

Two lines of inquiry go beyond conventional player protection. The investigator is to examine whether the gambling market is being used to find and exploit vulnerable young people for criminal activity, and to propose counter-measures if so. She is also to map existing efforts to limit children's access to lottery and casino features in computer games, and analyse whether more is needed.

The brief then turns to mechanisms already in the system. The inquiry will review the possibility of support for people who suspend themselves through spelpaus.se, analyse the need to check young players' financial situation when they gamble, and consider mandatory time limits. Throughout, the government says, new protections must be weighed against the risk that gambling increases at companies without a Swedish licence, whose customers fall outside the protections of Swedish regulation. Proposals are due by 29 February 2028. Sweden's licensing framework and market status are on the iGaming Times country page.

Channelisation Is Written Into the Terms of Reference, Which Is the Industry's Win

Every protective measure Sweden has introduced since re-regulation in 2019, from the pandemic deposit cap to the credit ban that took effect in April, has been argued over on channelisation grounds, and the government's own estimate of the licensed share of online casino play has never reached its target. Writing the leakage risk into the investigator's instructions is an acknowledgement that a rule which protects young men only on licensed sites may protect them nowhere. It is also close to what the trade body BOS asked for last week when it told the regulator to rethink its safer-gambling rules. The industry will not like the eventual proposals, but it has been given the frame it wanted.

The Criminal Recruitment Line Is New, and It Is the One to Watch

An inquiry into whether gambling is used to recruit young people into crime moves the subject from public health to public order, and Sweden's gang violence is the political issue of the decade. If the investigator finds a link between gambling debt and recruitment, the measures that follow will not be limited to advertising rules. Financial checks on young players and mandatory time limits, both explicitly on the table, would be the first such requirements in a Nordic market.

A February 2028 Deadline Means the Next Government Decides

Sweden's general election is due in September 2026, and the report arrives 17 months after it. The three ministers who signed the announcement may not be in office to receive it. That is normal for a Swedish inquiry, and it is why the terms of reference matter more than the press release: they will survive the government that wrote them.

Sweden has decided that the doubling of risky gambling among young men is an inquiry's problem before it becomes a law's. The industry has 18 months to shape what that law looks like.