The Casino Cosmopol subsidiary of Svenska Spel has announced the launch of a new initiative to help furloughed staff retrain as healthcare workers during the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.Working in partnership with the Skill Shift Initiative (Beredskapslyftet), the new scheme will offer up to 20 guaranteed places for Casino Cosmopol employees to undertake intensive carer training.
The training will take place at the at the Grand Hôtel and Sophiahemmet in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, with Casino Cosmopol to provide SEK200,000 (£16,070/€18,396/$19,995) in funding to support the project.
Those that undertake training will be offered temporary work in health care and care in the Swedish capital Stockholm.
“I am really proud that we at Casino Cosmopol can contribute to social benefit in the difficult situation we are in; it is important that all good forces work together now,” Casino Cosmopol’s Stockholm casino manager, Thérèse Liljeqvist, said.
“I really believe that at Casino Cosmopol, with our service attitude, the habit of working all hours of the day and our professionalism, can make a big difference to many people in health and social care.”
Svenska Spel temporarily closed all four of its land-based Casino Cosmopol sites in Sweden at the end of March, in line with government measures to combat the spread of coronavirus.
As part of its plans to mitigate the impact of the outbreak, Casino Cosmopol laid off all workers in hourly and probationary positions, while 98% all permanent staff were placed on temporary leave. In total Svenska Spel has furloughed 800 of its 900 land-based staff, and 45 of the 135 employees working for its igaming division, Svenska Spel Sport & Casino.
Casino Cosmopol operates casinos in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Sundsvall and Malmö.
Confirmation of the new training scheme comes after Svenska Spel earlier today (20 April) issued responsible gambling advice for players spending more time at home due to the coronavirus, but said it had not yet seen any signs of higher-risk gambling.
Svenska Spel said it is continuing to observe player behaviour and has increased the number of interventions in makes for players who show signs of problem behaviour.
