Svenska Spel donates seven-figure sum to sustainable gambling projects
Swedish operator’s independent council forks out a total of SEK5.9m to seven different gambling-related harm research projects in one of the most competitive grant tenders in its history
Svenska Spel’s independent research council has donated SEK5.9m (£440,000) to seven different research projects concerning gambling-related harm.
The largest grant of SEK1.7m has gone to Philip Linder of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, who will head up a project investigating if, and by how much, gambling advertising affects people’s desire to gamble.
Kent Nilsson of Uppsala University received SEK1.2m to study the effect of microtransactions in video games and how much they influence the development of gambling-related harm and mental illness in young people.
Sabina Kapetanovic of Högskolan Väst was granted SEK1m to research how gambling can affect the mental health of young people, with a focus on both short- and long-term effects.
Erika Roman from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences was given SEK600,000 to study how biological differences between different genders can influence any sex’s approach to risk taking in gambling.
SEK500,000 went to Kristina Berglund from the University of Gothenburg to examine the negative consequences of gambling-related harm on a person’s relatives.
Finally, a further SEK450,000 was handed to Johan Svensson from the Central Association for Alcohol and Drug Information to examine gambling from a public health perspective.
This will include aspects such as the link between gambling and mental illness, whether a rise in the average level of gambling in the population leads to more gambling-related harm and whether different social groups are more susceptible to gambling-related harm.
The seven-figure fund came as Svenska Spel’s research council celebrated its 15th anniversary. The state-owned operator said its efforts so far have moved the research on the topic “ forward considerably from having been a relatively unexplored area”.
The operator also revealed the 18 applicants for grants this year was almost double the amount in 2023, with the SEK5.9m total one of the largest grants ever handed out.
Sara Lindholm, the research council’s chair, said: “It is absolutely proof that gaming research is today an urgent social issue in need of more knowledge and evidence.
“This year’s applications maintained a very high quality, which is a direct effect of more research collaborations and new creative ideas.
“The council is finding it increasingly difficult to choose who will receive funding each year, which is exactly what we want.”