Finnish gambling monopoly under fire
A national study conducted by the Finnish government has yielded recommendations that the current system, one that monopolises gambling operations be, altered or re-regulated.
The study focused on international comparison to international counterparts of the system that remains in place to holistically oversee gambling operations across the Nordic country. Outlining two potential alternatives that could be applied in its place.
The first would be to base a new order on the Norwegian model, to grant the regulatory authorities a significantly larger portion of power in preventing consumers from accessing unlicensed gambling from abroad. Methods currently used by the Scandinavians include
blocking orders, banning advertising and a plethora of payment processing interruption options.
The second option laid out by the study suggested establishing a licensing model, much like the ones currently in effect for many of Finland’s neighbours, providing more diversification and competition in the market along with improving the flow of traffic towards legal offerings at the expense of illicit ones.
The possibly dangers of such a system as the latter was not lost on the study stating:
The increase in competition following the introduction of the licence system may, in principle, increase the total consumption of gambling and thus also the disadvantages of gambling
Despite such risks, the study digressed yet again stating that according to respected research literature, monopoly systems and ones that are licenced show little difference in terms of negative effects prevalent or even total amount of individual activities, whilst licence systems remain in a state conducive to providing the same universal benefits.
The state controlled monopoly in Finland is quite a particular entity in that it succeeds in providing many significant benefits. Supposedly regulating both land-based and online operations, the Finnish Lotteries Act runs the industry solely in favour of Veikkaus Oy. They are wholly responsible for overseeing all sports betting, instant-win games and national lotteries.
This is no small task considering that Finland has a top 10 spend per capita on gambling activities when compared to the rest of the world. Veikkaus, as a result, are responsible for thousands of Finnish jobs.
Being state-owned, Veikkus’ revenues are used to fund the social services within Finland. Supporting numerous projects, such as sporting and cultural events, youth development programs, healthcare, and social welfare among many others.
What is also a rather wonderful revelation is that any and all winnings are completely exempt from taxation. The payment methods are also, surprisingly up to date, with a measured and gradual shift currently sweeping through online services to receive and give payment in crypto or digital currencies.
The suggestions are not against the multitude of benefits on offer, but on the numerous illegal operations being conducted across the border towards the Finnish population, with online gambling seeing a rapid uptick as of recent with consumer behaviour swinging towards online gambling of a legal and illicit nature.
Only 5 – 6% of the population actually engage in the latter, however, the significance of this can be seen in financial terms, costing the state 50% of the total market, to the tune of EUR500 – EUR550 annually.
The issues raised by the study are most certainly significant and minor amendments have already been made as of late to the Finnish Lotteries Act, within the single-system framework however, but you get the feeling that the Finnish government is rightly concerned to mitigate any hindrances to the current benefits afforded by the monopoly.
Nonetheless the suggestions proposed undoubtedly have the potential to result in some beneficial action, possibly lowering the rate of illicit gambling and maybe even succeeding in growing the beginnings of a fair and competitive market.
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