Gambling policy: Do industry voices deserve to be heard?
Gustaf Hoffstedt reflects on his time in Swedish Parliament, drawing on his legislative experience to assess whether gambling companies should have a voice in policymaking.
Before I joined the gambling industry, I was an elected politician and a member of the Swedish Parliament. Much of my lengthy working days were spent listening to representatives of companies, trade associations, NGOs and other special interest groups explaining how they believed legislation should change. Naturally, their proposals often benefited themselves. But that did not mean their proposals could not also benefit society. My job as an elected representative was to tell the difference.
If a proposal served only a narrow interest at the expense of the wider public, I would reject it. If the interests happened to align, I was perfectly capable of supporting the proposal without becoming an agent of the organisation that had proposed it. What mattered was not who stood to benefit, but whether the policy itself was good for society.