Finland’s Veikkaus gambling monopoly says it expects its 2020 profits to fall by around €300m due to COVID-19, while the country debates whether to shift to a more open online gambling market.  

On Friday, Veikkaus reported that its revenue over the first half of 2020 totaled €607.2m, a drop of 28% from the first half of 2019. Profit was down more than one-third to €332.7m, prompting the company to warn that it likely won’t meet the €1b full-year profit stipulated in the 2020 state budget.

Veikkaus noted that its land-based operations, including its own slots halls and slots in private businesses, were forced to close in mid-March and stayed closed for several months. This pushed the retail share of H1 revenue down to 55.9%, with the remainder coming via Veikkaus’ digital channels.

Veikkaus has been trying to grow its digital operations ever since it began a cull of its land-based slots business, the ubiquity of which has increasingly come under fire from the public. But the 11.8-point rise in digital market share was primarily due to the greater land-based decline, as digital casino sales were down 0.9% year-on-year.