The Social Democrats and SSU have extracted significant funds from their lottery operations before selling to IOGT-NTO. This move, amid past controversies over aggressive sales tactics, has sparked criticism from the Moderate Youth League, questioning the ethics of funding political campaigns with such profits.
Social Democrats Withdraw 22.9 Million Before Lottery Transfer
Social Democrats Withdraw 22.9 Million Before Lottery Transfer
The Social Democrats and SSU are making an extra profit distribution from the lottery company Kombispel, A-lotteriet.
The Social Democratic lottery operations have faced criticism over the years. Both Expressen and DN have exposed aggressive sales methods by Kombispel's hired sales companies, and last fall, it was revealed that a sales office in Spain was led by a man with gang connections, wanted for crimes in Sweden.
In June, the Social Democrats announced the sale of the entire lottery operation under A-lotteriet to the sobriety organization IOGT-NTO for 57.5 million SEK.
– I didn't want to sell this to a commercial actor, an online casino, or similar. I wanted to move it from one popular movement to another. Now we're doing it, and it feels very good, said party secretary Tobias Baudin.
He described the sale and remaining surplus in the operations as a temporary boost to the party's finances while opening up for finding new long-term revenues for the party.
Millions to the Social Democrats
It is now clear that the Social Democrats and the youth association SSU, which owned the lottery operations via the economic association A-lotterierna, will receive additional funds from the operations before the transfer, as the companies are now largely emptied of remaining surplus.
According to reports to the Swedish Companies Registration Office about extra general meetings within A-lotteriet's five different lottery companies, decisions have now been made on extra profit distributions in each of the companies totaling 32.8 million SEK.
Of this money, 22.9 million goes to A-lotterierna, for distribution between the owners, the Social Democrats and SSU.
IOGT-NTO states via the organization's press service that these are funds the previous owners are withdrawing before the transfer and that their interest lies in continuing to run the business as such.
– It's no stranger than agreeing on what should be in a house when selling a house, says A-lotteriet's chairman, S-MP Mathias Tegnér, about the decisions on extra profit distribution.
– In this case, you determine what is a reasonable liquidity level, and then that's the level that exists when selling the companies.
Most of the money comes from the criticized company Kombispel in Sweden AB, which gives the S-cash 14,380,000 SEK. The company had not made any distribution at all for the scandal year 2024 and reported a significant drop in results.
Change in Law
Other profit distributions are made in the companies ISAB Ideella spel AB, Nordic Lottery nöjesspel AB, Lottericentralen AB, and their parent company Svenska lotterier och insamlingar AB.
Svenska lotterier och insamlingar AB has previously this year made a distribution of 7,254,000 SEK, according to the annual report. Now they are making a new extra profit distribution of 8.5 million.
Thus, S and SSU have been able to extract over 30 million from the lottery operations during the year – which looks to be their last year in the lottery industry.
Expressen's revelation about the owners' dividend distributions prompts the Moderate Youth League to react.
– This is crazy, says chairman Douglas Thor in a press release, questioning whether the Social Democrats and SSU should run an election campaign "financed by a profit they got from deceiving the elderly and vulnerable out of money," with a clear reference to the misconduct around the hired sales companies' methods that have been revealed over the years.
– If S and SSU are genuinely sorry about how the elderly were deceived by their lottery, they should give the entire profit to the crime victim fund, says Douglas Thor in the same press release.
The sale of the lottery operations was made six months before a tightening of the law comes into force. The law means that the favorable tax rules that have long applied to party lotteries will disappear, a law that S has criticized as particularly targeted against opposition financing.
For IOGT-NTO, which is politically independent, the more favorable rules will continue to apply.