Finland’s gambling monopoly, Veikkaus, today revealed plans to nearly halve the number of slots machines it operates at kiosks, supermarkets, and service stations within the next five years amid criticism over weak social responsibility policies.
Veikkaus currently operates 18,500 slot machines around Finland. The company’s management said during a press conference held earlier today that it would remove roughly 3,500 gaming devices next year and another 4,500 over the course of the next five years. It will thus have around 10,500 slot machines by the end of that period.
Veikkaus officials also said today that the operator will look to implement a required identification verification technology across its gambling devices by 2021, a year earlier than previously expected. The technology will, among other things, enable players to ban themselves from gambling on slot machines temporarily or permanently.
Veikkaus CEO Olli Sarekoski said today that the mandatory authentication will be rolled out across the operator’s other products, excluding scratch cards, by 2023. The official also noted that the planned changes across their slot machines will reduce Veikkaus’ annual profit by €150-200 million.
The gambling operator previously revealed plans to reduce the number of its slot machines across Finland by around 3,000 to 15,500.
Marketing Overhaul
Veikkaus’ management also said today that the gambling company will undergo an overhaul of its marketing activities and that the changes will aim to ensure that it promotes its products in a socially responsible manner.
The changes in Veikkaus’ marketing department were prompted by the massive public outcry the gambling monopoly faced this summer over a controversial radio advertising campaign that featured regular gamblers who were advised by a therapist to indulge their habit by going to the racetrack or gambling online on Veikkaus’ website.
The operator suspended the ad campaign and promised to introduce dramatic changes in its marketing strategies. Veikkaus Chief Commercial Officer Veera Vähävirta said today that the overhaul would include all aspects of marketing within the company, ranging from content and volume of advertising to monitoring and practices promoting responsible gambling.
The Finnish gambling monopoly also said that it plans to reduce the media channels across which it will advertise its products in future.
Veikkaus’ CEO said today that the state-owned operator has been under high pressure to maintain its financial performance in recent years, while trying to offset the impact of the digitalization and internationalization of the gambling market. As a result, the price Veikkaus had to pay was that it was not able to work toward reducing gambling-related issues in Finland and was instead satisfied that those have not increased in recent years.
The Finnish gambling monopoly said earlier year that it would overhaul its digital gambling operations in a bid to meet the growing demand for online gaming and betting products. Veikkaus has tapped major online casino content providers to add popular gaming titles to its offering and has penned a sports betting deal with SBTech that will see the technology provider power its brand new online sportsbook that is slated to go live in early 2020.
Source: Veikkaus to almost halve number of slot machines in five years, Helsinki Times
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