Spelinsikt fills the gap where support for gambling problems runs out
Quitting gambling is hard. Doing it alone is harder. Gabriel Thedeen and Peter Camarch are building Spelinsikt, an app where people who gamble and those close to them sign up anonymously and meet others in the same situation. It also lets you block the way back to gambling.
Gabriel Thedeen started gambling as a teenager. By 2014 his debts were too large for anyone to lend against. That was the first time he asked for help. Two years later he had paid the debts off, stopped going to meetings and believed he was done with gambling. By 2018 the debts were back, roughly four times as large. He asked for help again and has not gambled since then.
Peter Camarch was six or seven years old when he played slot machines on the ferries between Sweden and Finland. That is where an early and misleading link formed between gambling and quick money. What started with small change escalated over the years and went on until he was 42. In the end it was no longer money at stake, but his family. That was where he drew the line.
"No one knew about it for all those years. Gambling addiction is a silent illness and it leaves no smell."
The responsibility is assigned but the help does not arrive
The silence is not only theirs. 352,000 people in Sweden have some degree of gambling problems and 130,000 share a household with someone whose gambling is a problem. 40,000 of them are children. The figures come from the Public Health Agency of Sweden. Among boys in ninth grade, ten percent gambled at a risky level in 2025 according to CAN, the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs. That is twice the share of 2021.
The responsibility has been assigned since 2018, when gambling addiction was placed on the same footing as alcohol and substance addiction in the Social Services Act and the Health and Medical Services Act. In 2023 about 860 people received support from municipal social services for gambling addiction, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare. A review published by the Swedish National Audit Office in February 2026 concluded that the state’s work to reduce gambling problems is not effective and that it does little to reach children and young people.
"Support for gambling addiction is unequal and often insufficient. Much of it depends on where in the country you live."
A first step that does not require a name
"We built something we think the government should have built."
Spelinsikt is available in the App Store and on Google Play. Registration is anonymous and the app is free. It offers a daily check-in with a diary, milestones that count gambling-free days, a way to start over after a relapse and a bet blocker. Family members have a part of the app of their own, where they can find support for their own situation and follow the person they are close to. In the community anyone can write about their own experience and read what others have written. The app also links on to support organizations.
The bet blocker creates friction at the moment the urge arrives. It covers gambling operators without a Swedish license that fall outside Swedish regulation.
Jakob Jonsson, a licensed psychologist and PhD who has worked with gambling addiction for thirty years, has reviewed the app and finds it a well-founded complement to professional treatment. The app as a whole has not yet been evaluated for effect. Spelinsikt takes part in the national quality review of health apps, which follows the technical specification SIS-CEN ISO/TS 82304-2:2021 and runs until June 2027.
The hardest part is being found
Gabriel and Peter both have a background in digital product development and have worked on the app for three years alongside jobs and studies, with help from more than fifty interns and volunteers. The hardest part has been reaching the people the app is built for.
Men and boys are overrepresented in every category of gambling problems, according to the Public Health Agency of Sweden. Gabriel says men also ask for help less often and that shame and stigma are part of why so many wait. At the same time Spelinsikt is hard to find because few other sites link to the app, and talks are under way with gambling operators about linking from their responsible gambling pages. In the meantime they do the work themselves, through social media and by speaking to professionals who meet gambling problems in their work. Gabriel also hosts a podcast under the same name.
"We have been shouting from the balconies."
Gabriel and Peter contacted DigitalWell Ventures after a tip from Folkuniversitetet, an adult education association. Since then they have had ongoing coaching in business development and company structure, regulatory expertise ahead of the quality review and support in finding routes to funding. Through DigitalWell Incubator they have had mentoring and contacts in the public sector, and have pitched at DigitalWell Innovationsbevakning and at the trade fair Lösningar för offentlig sektor.
What they are looking for
The app is free today. Spelinsikt is run as a not-for-profit association and Gabriel and Peter want to keep it that way, but servers and working hours cost money. Without funding they may have to charge the people who use it, something they would rather avoid.
To keep the app free they are looking for sponsors and partnerships. They are also looking for routes into the public sector and are in talks with municipalities about connecting the app to the support the municipalities already provide.
The next version is in development. It includes a new bet blocker, a chat between members and a closer link between users and the people close to them.
If any of this sounds familiar
If you or someone close to you has a problem with gambling, there is help available and you do not have to deal with it alone.
Stödlinjen för spelare och anhöriga, 020-81 91 00 and stodlinjen.se. Free and anonymous counseling by phone and chat.
Spelberoendes Riksförbund, spelberoende.se, and Spelberoendegruppen, spelberoendegruppen.com. Self-help groups across the country and online.
1177.se and your municipality. Health care and social services are required to offer support for gambling problems, and municipal support is free of charge.
Spelinsikt, spelinsikt.se. The app this article is about. Free and anonymous.
If you are in immediate danger, call 112. If you or someone close to you is having thoughts of suicide, Självmordslinjen is open around the clock on 90101 and at mind.se.
The services listed here are Swedish and operate in Swedish. If you are outside Sweden, look for the national helpline where you live.
Spelinsikt
Not-for-profit association
Founders: Gabriel Thedeen and Peter Camarch
App launched: May 2026
Website: spelinsikt.se
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/spelinsikt
Podcast: Spelinsikt – personliga möten
Looking for now: funding and sponsors to keep the app free, partnerships with municipalities and partners who can spread the word that the app exists
Spelinsikt is part of DigitalWell Incubator, a program for early-stage companies building digital solutions for the public sector in health, welfare and public service. It is open to companies based in Sweden and accepts applications on a rolling basis.