The number of gamblers at risk is less by the previous year. Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare’s study shows that problem gambling decreasing in Finland. The study was processing data of 4000 Finnish gamblers in 2019.
The institution is monitoring gambling behaviors since 2007. Every 4 years they conduct a study amongst people aged between 15 and 74. The study from 2019 was stating that 11 percent of the Finns has gambling problems during the year. Previously, in 2015, this number was 15 percent. The decrement is similar amongst both genders.
Numbers – Problem gambling decreasing in Finland
It is worth to make a difference between gamblers at-risk and the ones who have gambling problems. We can say that at-risk gamblers are the ones who have the risk of experience or develop gambling problems. The previous study was measuring that 3 percent of the people were going through serious gambling problems. However, this number is only 1.4 percent in 2019. Translating to the number of people, it is 112000 in 2015 and only 52000 in 2019.
Online gambling is becoming more popular
With the current lockdown situation, many gamblers are changing to online gambling. However, this is also a process that is going on for long. The number of online gamblers was showing in 2015 an increase of 12.7 percent. However, this number is 36.3 percent in 2019. Anne Salonen, researcher of THL was commenting as follows.“Only a relatively few people gamble games offered by operators other than Veikkaus (the main Finnish operator), when compared to the number of those gambling Veikkaus games. Then again, there is big money involved in foreign online games. Therefore, it is now important to monitor how the closing of the Finnish slot machines due to the coronavirus epidemic affects online gambling.”
Online gambling loss limit is being introduced
Doing online gambling can be very fast-paced, just think about people playing poker with about 15 tabs open. Considering the increase of online gamblers and that they are more exposed at the moment, Finland is starting to limit losses on online casinos. The loss limits are pretty strict and the lottery draws are suspended entirely. While gamblers will have less opportunity to play, this might lead to the rise of illegal gambling or choosing offshore operators.
The regulations are the most strict on fast-paced gambling games, where the loss limit is 500 euros. Previously it was 2000 euros. The restrictions will last until the 30th of September. The question is how much the market can cooperate with these changes. While in Finland most of the gambling activity is conducted by the government-owned Veikkaus, similar changes in Sweden were leading to the dissatisfaction of Swedish gambling companies with the possible outcome of them leaving the market.
This leads us to the same problem. People might register with international or grey area operators taking away precious tax money from Finland with this. However, the number of gamblers will decrease on the official statistics. Once it comes to online casinos or sportsbooks, always check out the latest online gambling bonuses and also be cautious about using approved operators. We are trying to cover any changes in legal issues by providing the latest online gambling news.
