The rate of problem gambling in Finland is at its lowest level since the current survey methodology was introduced in 2017, according to monopoly operator Veikkaus.
The company’s latest population-level survey, conducted betaween August and November last year, found that 1.9 per cent of the population suffered from gambling harms - around 72,000 people.
Since 2017, it said, the moving average of the rate of problem gambling has decreased from 3.2 per cent to 1.9 per cent.
“A particular decrease can be seen in the prevalence of risky gambling,” Veikkaus added, with the change in the average “more than four percentage points from 2017 to today.”
About a fifth of the people who engage in gambling – around 500,000 people – play at the “least risky level,” the study said.
“In recent years, we have taken great strides in building a more responsible and safer gaming environment,” the operator added.
“These include, among other things, a strong reduction in the number of slot machines, the introduction of loss limits and mandatory identification, which has been implemented in stages so that from May of this year onwards, it has applied to all Veikkaus games except for scratch cards.”
