Harness racing is, next to soccer, the biggest sport in Sweden when measured by attendances. Harness racing attracts about 600,000 different spectators every year. It is also widespread across the country. Races are held from J gersro, deep in the south, to the northerly Boden, from rj ng, in the western woodlands close to the Norwegian border, to Solvalla in Stockholm, on the east coast. Altogether almost 10,000 heats [races] are staged every year, and the turnover on gambling is about eleven thousand million Swedish Crowns (Kronor or SKR) or nearly 2 billion Australian dollars. There are estimates suggesting that one third of the adult population gamble at least once a year. In Sweden, modern harness racing is strongly dependent on gambling revenues. These are essential in maintaining the quality as well as the scale of the sport. At the same time, a precondition for the high turnover in gambling is that the racing must remain of high quality. There is a close connection between the Swedish Trotting Association (STC) and the state through the company ATG, which has a national monopoly on gambling. It is this popular interest in the sport itself and in its attractiveness to gamblers that Sweden differs from most other countries, since Swedish harness racing is far more popular than horseracing.