Finland’s gambling market derives over half its turnover from individuals who either have gambling problems or are at risk of developing problems, while the country is losing faith with its state-run gambling monopoly. 

On Tuesday, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) released its latest snapshot of the country’s gambling market, which claims that a mere 2.5% of gamblers accounted for half of all gambling spending in 2019. (Read the report here, English abstract starts on page 11.)

The 2.5% figure – which represents around 72k individuals – is a significant shrinkage from the 4.2% of Finns who were responsible for half of all gambling spending in a similar survey in 2007, and less than half the 5.2% figure from 2015. 

THL released the preliminary results of its 2019 survey this spring, which showed problem gambling rates falling 0.3 points to 3% and the at-risk figure falling 4.3 points to 10.7%. But researcher Anne Salonen called it “concerning” that a relative handful of individuals were so demonstrably bucking this trend.