FINNS TIGHTENING UP ONLINE GAMBLING?

18 January 2008

Some radical ideas on reimbursing problem gamblers


It must have something to do with those long winters up North, but Finnish players have, along with other Scandinavians, developed a solid reputation as Internet gamblers of note in terms of both volume and skills. The Finnish government has not been slow to notice the popularity of the pastime either, and that heralds a tightening up on sensitive issues such as underage and problem gambling.

Now a working group at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is proposing that the all-embracing Lotteries Act is beefed up to ensure that teens under 18 years of age are completely prohibited from playing slot machines, lotto and toto, reports YLE and Helsingin Sanomat. The group also suggests that gambling games be equipped with identification devices to help ensure that age restrictions are obeyed, and that "evocative gambling advertisements" are barred.

The proposed amendment to the Lotteries Act is motivated by a push to prevent the harmful effects of gambling. Surprisingly, 15 year-olds can play slot machines and buy coupon games over the counter.

Where online gambling is concerned, additional measures are being proposed that include interfering with telecommunications - presumably through the ISP infrastructure - and restrictions on international online financial transactions. And a law professor at Joensuu University, Kalle Määttä is making waves with a controversial academic paper based on the precept that losers who have played on "illegal online games" should be empowered to recoup their losses.

Apparently Professor Määttä's paper, which was commissioned by the Finnish government, suggests that players authorised to recoup their losses could be paid either by the firm providing the online gambling services, any credit card company who's card was used, or even the winning player in the game! The goal of the authorities appears to be to make Finnish players so troublesome that online gambling venues would bar them from participating.

According to Määttä, a Finnish law consisting of such concepts would be pioneering legislation unmatched by anything elsewhere in the world. The professor claims that the idea of the law is not to force citizens to put shackles on their gambling, but merely to provide them with the opportunity to claim back the losses that they may have accumulated, say, while playing online poker when drunk.

The Ministry is aware of the technical difficulties such a law would involve, and is therefore waiting to hear comments on the proposals and the practicalities of their implementation.

Helsingin Sanomat reports that the online poker operation is based on the same kind of pyramid system used in network sales businesses. According to the social authorities, the newspaper reports, on the lowest levels of the pyramid are the gambling addicts, whose money the game organiser uses to pay the winners at the top of the pyramid.

"If the damage caused to those at the bottom of the pyramid far exceed the benefits reaped by random players, something needs to be done", Professor Määttä says.

Helsingin Sanomat claims that some Euro 150 million a year is taken by online poker firms from Finns alone. Measured per head of population, the Finns are fourth in the world tables for spending on gambling generally, and there are estimated to be around 40 000 people in the country with some level of problem arising out of a gambling habit - as many as in The Netherlands, a country with three times the population.

Land gambling in Finland is dominated by Veikkaus, RAY, or Fintoto, but there is currently little if any restriction on people playing on the Internet.

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