The report – which was released yesterday – examined the state of the Finland gambling market and its success at channelling consumers to Veikkaus. The study concluded by stating that maintaining the status quo was “not a recommended option”, highlighting that at present around 50% of all gaming activity takes place on unlicensed sites.
“Approximately half of all gambling online goes to games outside the system. Playing outside the system also causes significant gambling disadvantages, the effective prevention of which is challenging when operating within the framework of the current system,” said the study
Veikkaus senior leadership welcomed the report and its conclusions. CEO Olli Sarekoski emphasised the size of the offshore sector and his openness to the introduction of a licensed system to improve Finland’s channelisation rates.
Veikkaus praises gambling report
“The report is good and balanced,” said Sarekoski. “It is important that the amount of gaming margin outside the exclusive rights system is confirmed to be in the range of 500 – 550 million, and thus also in the category we presented based on H2 Gambling Capital’s information.”
“If the system change is headed towards a license system, from Veikkaus’ point of view, it is desirable that this change happens faster rather than slowly,” he added.
The report presented two possible paths of reforming the country’s gaming market. The first option – based on the Norwegian model – would be to reduce the availability of unlicensed offerings to Finnish consumers. This would be achieved by giving new powers to the regulator and law enforcement to make it more difficult to successfully broadcast such gaming to users.
The second option would be to introduce a licensing model – the option embraced by the majority of Finland’s neighbours.
“With the license system, it would probably be possible to achieve a higher degree of channelling in online gambling than the current situation,” said the study.
The report’s signatories were Harri Sailas , Tuija Brax , Riitta Matilainen and Mikko Alkio – and it was received by State Secretary Akseli Koskela.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/legal-compliance/veikkaus-praises-gambling-monopoly-report/
