Today I made a visit to my local grocery store in Rovaniemi, Finland in a quest to buy some milk for my regular afternoon coffee. When I paid my groceries for the young cashier with cash and started to made my walk towards the exit, I noticed that I would have the easiest possibility to earn some more money. Only three steps away from the cashier was an alluring slot machine with 6 different game options, on which I could have invested my all current liquid funds I was carrying with me on that very moment.
I was only 3 steps away to spend my whole fortune on that very slot machine if I decided to do so. I had no intention to gamble today when I decided to go and get some milk, but the opportunity was out there and it would have been so easy to gamble on my trip.
The sight is nothing else but familiar in Finland. Gas-stations, kiosks, supermarkets, grocery stores and even pubs are filled with slot machines and people who are willing to put their money on them in a hope for easy money. Unfortunately, according to some studies on these slot machines, the expected values on these slot machines is about 90 % (rahapeliopas.fi). If you are allergic to the mathematical terminology and want to still know what that number means, let me explain: It means that if people play with 100 euros, 90 euros of that 100 are distributed as winnings to the players. The house indeed wins.
I want to focus on this writing to RAY and the slot machines. How it could be, that in our beloved country where alcohol, business administration, food, agriculture and everything is regulated so strictly, gambling is made so ordinary as it is nowadays. How it could be, that it's so easy to lose your money and even get yourself a gambling addiction is brought so close to everyone and regulated so little. Luckily though, all gambling in Finland is prohibited from everyone under 18 years old by law.
One of the grounds the monopoly on gambling is maintained, is to prevent, supervise and take care of gambling problems, which are a huge cost for the society and economy. People lose their money and cannot consume, they can lose their homes and can even cause problems to their beloved ones with their addiction. Gambling addiction is a major cost for the society and it shouldn't be underestimated, so I'm with the government in this matter that the matter of monitoring these problems is to be left with trusted professional gambling associations.
But what I don't understand is how the prerequisites for the birth of gambling addictions and financial troubles are made so convenient. People go to the grocery stores many times a week, and on every time there's an opportunity to gamble.
Even in the local pubs there is an excellent chance to lose your money on a dark Friday-night. While I worked part-time as a croupier for RAY, I encountered hundreds and hundreds of intoxicated people who walked to the BlackJack table and lost plenty of their money. When I asked them, were they planning to gamble tonight with 200 euros, they usually said ''No''. Of course, according to the morals of RAY and everyone, no-one should gamble while intoxicated. But rarely (especially in Finland) you find sober people on a place where alcohol is served through-out the night.
Possibly because of the easy availability, to my great surprise Finland is on the top-countries in the world when it comes to the amount of gambling. I've visited some countries on my travels such as Italy, Malta, France etc and I've never seen the way of positioning gambling opportunities into everyday facilities in such a way they are in Finland. I would like to state again, that gambling is considered as a cost for the economy. The chart underneath states the biggest gambling countries as loss per reisident adult in 2010 in USD.
Source: The Economist http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/05/gambling
My question is, that is the era of RAY and other associations soon to be end if things are continuing to develop in a way like this. Online-gambling on other gambling sites exists strong in Finland and the monopoly-status of our gambling firms is clearly under threat. This kind of competition cannot be easilly blocked or controlled by our gambling firms anymore.
It is illegal in Finland to organize gambling if you're not RAY, Veikkaus or FinToto. However, Helsingin Sanomat reported last autumn on many Finns, who have founded online-casinos in Malta. Founding your own online-casino is completely legal in Malta, but the effect is that Finnish people are able to gamble on these sites from their homes in Finland. This kind of activity is almost impossible to prevent in a modern society.
Finnish gambling is a matter I would like the government and the Finnish people to pay more attention to. Is the monopoly of our gambling firms justified and are all their actions morally acceptable, even though they help a considerable amount of organizations with their revenue? This revenue comes from the people who decide to gamble their money, instead of consuming or investing it. The costs of society are reduced with the expense of potential new, rising costs of society. And this is the problem I would like to asses to all of you that were willing to read this to the very end.
PS: I didn't gamble on my trip, cause I'm a risk-averse.
Text: SW
Pictures don't belong to me.
Koska ei ole yhtään ryhmää, joka käsittelisi online-uhkapelisivustoja, mielestäni organisaation luominen auttaa yhteisöä lopettamaan uhkapeliriippuvuuden ja taloudellisten kamppailujen syntymisen jo varhaisessa vaiheessa. Jotkut online-uhkapelisivustoista ovat <a Casinokokemus. Se auttaa myös lopettamaan uudet uhkapeliongelmat.
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