Negative press surrounding Finland’s Veikkaus gambling monopoly appears to be souring the nation’s youth on the appeal of gambling, according to a new survey.

On Wednesday, Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) released the results of a 2019 survey (in Finnish) that showed Finns’ overall view of gambling had a score of 22.5 on the Attitudes Towards Gambling Scale, below the ‘neutral’ score of 24 points. The previous survey in 2015 showed gambling trending slightly positive at 24.3 points.

That said, while strong majorities of Finns believe gambling shouldn’t be encouraged (91%), that there were too many gambling opportunities (71%) and gambling posed a threat to family life (61%), strong majorities oppose a gambling ban (79%) and continue to believe people have a right to gamble when they want (61%).

Finland was previously awash with 18,500 slot machines in retail shops, restaurants, gas stations and other venues, all of which were run by Veikkaus. However, a mounting backlash forced the company to announce plans to eliminate around 8,000 of these machines by 2025.