Operator News
Finland – Veikkaus sees 28,400 customers self-exclude since January
By Phil - 11 March 2021
Finnish operator Veikkaus has said that to date, a total of 5,600 customers have applied to be self-excluded from playing slot machines retail outlets with 27,500 customers doing similarly for online gaming.
Mandatory authentication covering Slots Gaming was introduced to the slot machines in stores, restaurants, kiosks, and service stations in January. The company aims to adopt compulsory authentication even in its gaming arcades this year. With compulsory authentication, players have a chance to set a complete ban on their Gaming, if they wish.
Veikkaus’ Vice President, CSR Jarmo Kumpulainen, said: “We want to build a Gaming environment where we bear responsibility for those who are at risk of getting into trouble with their Gaming. Compulsory authentication has brought us many new kinds of opportunities to do so. Veikkaus continues to work for Safer Gaming, and we are constantly planning diverse new solutions to help our customers manage their Gaming better. We want to be a trailblazer of responsible Gaming.”
Veikkaus’ objective is to make all of its games subject to compulsory authentication by the end of 2023. When the games can only be played authenticated, the players can, for example, set a complete ban on their Gaming. In addition, they have access to other tools for responsible gaming. Playing Slots on the machines placed in stores, kiosks, service stations, and restaurants has been the subject of authentication since January 12 2021. During these two months, a total of 63,000 customers have played slots on the machines, and the weekly number of different players has averaged 22,600. In all, Veikkaus has about two million registered, authenticated customers.
When authenticated, players can set a self-exclusion on their playing of the slot machines in the stores, restaurants, kiosks, and service stations for a fixed term or until further notice. At the beginning of March, ca. 5,600 customers had effective self-exclusions on slot machine gaming, of which 2,450 were effective until further notice and the rest for Shorter periods. Of the people having a set of Slots Gaming self-exclusions, 77% were men, which corresponds to the share of men out of Slots players in general.
Mr. Kumpulainen said: “We have noticed that self-exclusions on Slots Gaming have become more frequent, as more options have been available. However, we will not be able to analyze the situation thoroughly until after the exceptional conditions are over – the fact is that we currently only have ten percent of the machines up and running, due to the coronavirus.”
With compulsory authentication, slots players can also access the Panic button, enabling them to block their slots gaming until the end of the following day. Since compulsory authentication entered into force in January, players have pressed the Panic button over 610 times on slot machines.
In 2021, Veikkaus aims to make slot machine gaming subject to the same loss limits that are already being applied to the fast-paced online games. Mandatory authentication makes age limit controls easier and provides an extremely valuable tool for Veikkaus’ partners when they carry out age limit controls.
Ilkka Nieminen , Director at the Finnish Grocery Trade Association, said: “For the grocery stores, it is important that the age limit controls of all products subject to age limit supervision work reliably. As regards Veikkaus’ slot machines, compulsory authentication makes the work of the retail personnel much easier, since the age of a person is automatically Verified before they start to play. We think it is excellent that authenticated gaming also provides technological solutions for the effective prevention of problem gambling.”
Despite the challenges and insecurity due to the coronavirus epidemic, Veikkaus made several major decisions with significant impacts on the building of a more responsible gaming environment in 2020. The number of slot machines placed at the retail outlets (stores, kiosks, restaurants, and service stations) was reduced by 40 per cent, from 18,500 to 10,500. Veikkaus’ slot machines have a degree of recycling and recovery of 97 per cent with the removed slot machines being recycled and reprocessed in Finland. It has limited the number of slot machines per point of sales from a maximum of 15 to a maximum of four and it brought forward the transition to compulsory authentication: the slot machines of the retail network have been the subject of full authentication since January 12 2021.
