Veikkaus ID data shows 7% of players responsible for half of takings

Roughly 1.7m people played Veikkaus games in 2021, meaning that half the company’s revenue came from 119,000 players. The figure compares favourably with Finland’s gambling industry as a whole, which takes into account offshore gambling, whereby 2.5% of players across all sites account for 50% of the revenue.

The data was collected through mandatory identification, a feature which has been rolled out across Veikkaus products over the year.

ID verification was introduced to Veikkaus slot games in January, before being added to retail betting in June. 80% of gambling in the country takes place via registered players, and Veikkaus plans to make that 100% by the year’s end.

The company also aims to have all products subject to ID verification by the end of 2023.

“This information gives us a positive message that the direction of our responsibility measures is the right one,” Veikkaus’ director of data and analytics Lauri Halkola said. “The reading is based on data on identified gambling and covers the majority of euros played to Veikkaus – including slot machines.

“We have taken and will continue to take measures to prevent gambling problems in advance. Our goal is also to significantly reduce the share of problem gambling with our solutions.”

Responsible gaming measures implemented by Veikkaus this year include the introduction and extension of a €500 daily loss limit, which was eventually made permanent by the Finnish government.

Veikkaus’ initiatives were also responsible for almost 30,000 players opting to self exclude from gambling.