Aftonbladet defiant over gambling ad ruling

Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet has said it intends to publish an advertisement for Maltese gambling company Expekt, despite a court ruling on Thursday authorising stiff penalties if it goes ahead. The Södermanland district court confirmed on Thursday the right of the Gaming Board to fine Aftonbladet SEK 150,000 (about EUR 16,000) for every foreign gambling advertisement published. The paper has three weeks to appeal, after which the Gaming Board will be able to start imposing the fines. Aftonbladet is far from being the only major media organisation to accept foreign gambling advertisements. They can now be seen on a wide variety of newspapers, television channels and websites. The Gaming Board calculates that Swedish media make around SEK 500bn (EUR 54bn) a year from the adverts. Under Swedish law, gambling companies are not breaking the law by advertising. The newspapers, TV companies and websites that publish the adverts are, however, breaking a law that prohibits them from promoting non-authorised gaming companies. The only authorised gambling companies are Svenska Spel and ATG, both big earners for the Swedish state, and certain lotteries linked to voluntary organisations. Media claim that the ad ban contravenes both the freedom of the press as guaranteed by the Swedish constitution and European Union rules. (The Local,March 09, 2007)

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