Finland’s Veikkaus gambling monopoly reported a slight turnover decline in the first half of 2018 after introducing new problem gambling controls.

This week, Veikkaus announced that its total sales in the six months ending June 30 came to €1.59b, down 0.3% from the same period last year. Despite the turnover decline, revenue improved 1.8% to €875m and profit rose 2.5% to €505.5m.

Veikkaus encompasses three state-run businesses – lotteries, race and sports betting, and land-based slot machines – that were combined into a single unit in early 2017.

Veikkaus gets most of its business via lotteries, but combined land-based and digital slots sales were up 5.4% to €413.6m, while sports betting turnover fell 1.6% to €281.4m, despite the impact of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Retail betting was fingered as the culprit, as retail turnover fell nearly 10% while digital betting rose 2.1%.