Today's News revealed in September how the Social Democrats' lottery, which brought in around ten million kronor to the party's coffers last year, targeted confused elderly people, where telephone salespeople were encouraged to be aggressive. The company behind it, Kombispel, has been reported several times to the Consumer Agency.
After the media reporting, which had major consequences and sparked political debate, the Consumer Agency chose to investigate several license holders of Swedish lotteries, not just the Social Democrats' lottery operations.
Aggressive sales
On Thursday, supervisory cases were opened against license holders of three lotteries due to aggressive telephone sales.
It is the Swedish Postcode Lottery, where the license holder is the Swedish Postcode Association. When it comes to the Kombispel lottery, we have opened a supervisory case against the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League, and the Swedish Social Democratic Women's Association. When it comes to the last lottery, the Date Lottery, we have opened a supervisory case against the Breast Cancer Association and the Prostate Cancer Association, says Johan Ohlsson, unit manager at the Consumer Agency's consumer protection department, to TT.
Welcome the decision
"We welcome the Consumer Agency's decision. It's good that it's being thoroughly investigated. I will take their results into account in the review of the operations I am currently conducting", writes Kombispel's CEO Jonas Nygren in an email to TT.
The Gaming Inspectorate has also initiated supervisory cases against the license holders due to DN's investigation and the Consumer Agency's letters.
The license holders have two weeks, until October 17, to respond to the authorities, the Consumer Agency and the Gaming Inspectorate.
