Race for Safe Gambling on the Finnish Line

Veikkaus is the most dominant of four state-controlled entities that control gambling in the Scandinavian nation.

It essentially runs all online betting, the national lottery, sports betting and instant win games — and runs most of the country’s eight bricks-and-mortar casinos.

While Finland, population 5.5 million, has one of the most liberal betting regimes in the world, authorities are also determined to make it one of the safest.

By the end of this year mandatory registration will be finalised across all the country’s gambling venues and portals.

With 80 per cent of punters registered to date, Veikkaus reports that around 1.7 million people have placed wagers so far this year, with 50 per cent of revenue coming from just 119,000 bettors.

“We have taken, and will continue to take, measures to prevent gambling problems in advance,” said Lauri Halkola, Director of Data and Analytics at Veikkaus.

“Our goal is to significantly reduce the share of problem gambling with our solutions.

“The reading is based on data on identified gambling and covers the majority of euros played to Veikkaus, including slot machines.

“This information gives us a positive message that the direction of our responsibility measures is the right one,” asserted Halkola.

Responsible gaming measures implemented by Veikkaus this year have included the imposition of a maximum €500 (£426/US$588) daily loss limit. And 30,000 at-risk players have self-excluded from gambling.

Meantime, online casinos–known in Finnish as “nettikasino”–continue to boom amid the zeitgeist of safe and responsible gambling.

It’s all positive news for the iGaming industry and shows that in pathfinder Finland, where around 40 per cent of gambling is now online, you can indeed have your cake and eat it.