Along with an increased online presence, as well as expanded trade agreement between EU countries, the Swedish online gambling market has been facilitated and made more accessible than ever before. As a consequence, this growing gambling market has also correlated with increased gambling-related health- and economical issues amongst Swedish gamblers. At the same time online gambling companies keep increasing their investments in external communication and marketing activities. In order to protect the public, the governmental initiative “Spelinspektionen” initiated the new law, spellagen (2018:1138), which from the 1st of January 2019 is supposed to regulate marketing from online gambling companies. Based on a multimodal critical discourse analysis, the purpose of this study is to examine how spellagen (2018:1138) has affected marketing strategies from three different gambling companies; Leovegas, Ninja Casino and No Account Casino. The analysis studies a material based on six movies before the introduction of spellagen, and six movies after the introduction. Four central discourses has been identified, called The Hero, Action, Escapism, and Alonetime. Based on these discourses, the analysis used different tools from a multimodal discourse analysis in order to distinguish the strategies upon which the hidden- or open message was communicated. The analysis found that the gambling companies regularly used Per Binde ́s motives for gambling in their commercials. At least three out of five motives were identified through identity-creating strategies and emotional strategies which could be connected to Bindes motives “chances of winning”, “the jackpot-dream” and “moodswings”. The most prominent strategy for all of the commercials was the use of symbols and representation, which allows the company to communicate hidden or subtle meanings through connotations the company know that their target group will make. This main strategy did not make any drastic changes after the introduction of spellagen (2018:1138). The same message was still communicated, but now more often through visual elements rather than linguistic ones. The conclusion pointed out that in order for spelinspektionen to protect Swedish gamblers, spellagen (2018:1138) must be more concrete and descriptive, so that no alternative interpretations can be made. Other measures for spelinspektionen to consider is the amount of gambling commercials which the Swedish public are exposed to today.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how young adults perceive gambling companies' video commercials in Sweden. A fast rise of commercials from gambling companies have evolved in recent years. As of January 2021, 102 companies have been approved for a Swedish gambling license. The total number of people gambling has not increased, but the total turnover has increased rapidly. Online casinos are considered one of the most addictive forms of gambling and therefore researchers claim that commercials from online casinos have the largest effect on people compared to other gambling forms. This makes it interesting to investigate video commercials in relation to young adults who are considered to be the biggest risk group to develop a gambling problem. To gain insight, we selected three video commercials and performed an in-depth analysis based on the method multimodal content analysis. Two focus group interviews were conducted with participants between the ages of 18-24 years. The focus groups were shown three commercials from three different gambling companies and were then asked about their opinion and interpretation of the commercials. The results were further analysed by the study’s theoretical framework of Stuart Hall's (1973) communication model encoding/decoding was used to analyse the video commercials and the answers from the focus groups.  The data from the focus group interviews indicated that gambling commercials could potentially have an impact on influencing young adults ages 18-24 years. The respondent's interpretation was generally negative since the majority of the participants disliked the video commercials and thought that the commercials were disturbing. Among the fifteen participants, three of them responded positively to some of the commercials and got more interested in wanting to start playing at online casinos after viewing the three video commercials. This suggests that gambling video commercials could have a negative influence.

Problem background: The online gaming industry has exploded and the number of consumers who play casino games has increased markedly in recent decades. In Sweden, the state has a monopoly on the gambling market and is not allowed to market casino games. But the foreign gambling companies make use of this by sending their advertisements via channels from other countries. Research Questions:- What are the reactions of Swedish gambling consumers to gambling companies marketing?- What determines when Swedish gambling consumers choose to gamble online?- What are the consequences that may arise for the gambling consumers owing to the gambling companies marketing? Purpose: The general purpose of this study is to contribute a distinct view over how Swedish gamblers react and experience the marketing of gambling companies. The sub-purpose is to find out what it is that makes the gambling-consumers to use these services as well as the consequences that may arise from the gaming company's marketing. Method: In this study, we have applied a quantitative network approach by creating an online survey and an online experiment. Empirics: The online survey and experiment gave us a total of 119 responses. 88 responses on the survey and 31 responses on the experiment. Online availability was enticing among the gambling consumers, being able to play at any time. According to the consumers they gamble for the excitement of it and to win money. There were also gambling consumers who stated that they are professional poker players and that poker is their only source of income. Conclusion: Even though consumers believe the gambling commercials are misleading and frustrating they still feel the urge to gamble online. This is most likely because the companies show off with a glamorous fantasy world of winning money in their commercials. The gamblers are relatively easy influenced by the commercials which are the main reason why gamblers end up with gambling issues/addictions. / Problembakgrund: Spelindustrin på nätet har exploderat och antalet konsumenter som spelar casinospel har ökat markant de senaste årtiondena. I Sverige har staten monopol på spelverksamheten och det är inte tillåtet att marknadsföra kasinospel, men de utländska spelbolagen utnyttjar detta genom att sända sin reklam via kanaler från andra länder. Forskningsfrågor:- Vad är de svenska spelkonsumenternas reaktioner till spelbolagens marknadsföring?- Vad är det som avgör för när svenska spelkonsumenter väljer att spela på nätet?- Vilka konsekvenser kan uppstå för spelkonsumenterna av spelbolagens marknadsföring? Syfte: Huvudsyftet med studien att ge en klarare bild över hur Svenska spelkonsumenters beteende och reaktioner av spelbolagens marknadsföring. Delsyftet är att ta reda på vad det är som gör att spelkonsumenter väljer att nyttja spelbolagens tjänster samt vilka konsekvenser som kan uppstå av spelbolagens marknadsföring. Metod: I denna uppsats har vi valt att tillämpa kvantitativa undersökningar genom att utforma en webbaserad enkät- och ett experiment. Empiri: Totalt deltog 119 respondenter i enkätundersökningen och experimentet, 88 respektive 31 stycken. Tillgängligheten på nätet var lockande bland spelarna, att kunna spela när som helst. Många spelare tycker att spel på nätet är spännande och spelar gärna för att vinna extra pengar. En del spelkonsumenter uppgav att de är professionella pokerspelare samt att poker är deras enda inkomstkälla. Slutsats: Slutligen kom vi fram till att även då spelkonsumenterna anser att spelbolagens marknadsföring är missvisande och frustrerande lockas dem ändå till att spela på nätet. Troligtvis eftersom spelbolagen framhäver en glamorös fantasivärld och att det är lätt att vinna på deras spelsidor. Spelkonsumenterna är relativt lättpåverkade av spelbolagens marknadsföring vilket är den främsta anledningen till att spelkonsumenter hamnar i ett spelproblem/spelberoende.