Finland’s lottery monopoly Veikkaus claims it has cutting problem gambling to an all-time low. Veikkaus attributes the outcome to loss limits on online slot machines.
The monopoly has had loss limits for “fast-paced” online games that was originally set at €2,000 (US$2,258) per month. This was reduced to €500 in April 2020. These loss limits were extended to physical slot machines last August.
This has led 100,000 players to stop playing on slots between September and October of 2021. Many cases involved players who self-limited to €200 or less per month. The decline has also extended to physical slots, which dropped from 40 percent of the company’s revenue to 20 percent, an 84.6 percent drop in revenue.
This is part of a deliberate effort by the monopoly, which includes decreasing the number of machines to less than 10,000 currently, compared to 18,500 two years ago.
Another factor is the use of player IDs, which will become mandatory by 2023. As a result, 0.8 percent of the population is currently classified as problem gamblers, compared to 1.6 percent a year ago.
Revenues are also projected to drop by at least 80 percent.
