People aged 15, 74, which totals to 5,977 people took part in the 2023 study. According to a population study conducted in Finland by THL or the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the majority of people held a negative view towards gambling last year.
Ninety percent of respondents stated that gambling should be discouraged in total. Sixty-one percent said there are too many opportunities for gambling in today’s climate.
Sixty-seven percent of responses disagreed with the idea of banning gambling altogether. Fifty-eight percent suggested that people should have the right to gamble whenever they want to. This is despite of the case.
20% in total held the view that on balance gambling is good for society, although 55% said it is dangerous for family life.
The survey underlined that 70% of people aged between 15-74 in mainland Finland had gambled in the past 12 months. In line with this, gambling being most common among men and those aged 45-59.
One of the findings of the survey reveals that approximately 151,000 people in mainland Finland have a gambling problem. This is the issue being most common among men and young adults.
Anne Salonen, THL Research Manager, stated that attitudes towards gambling and several individual questions on respondents’ opinions reflect a change. This change is in line with the changes that have occurred in gambling. We observed the clearest changes in the decline in gambling and a more critical attitude towards it among young adults.
She added that the opinions by the respondents also revealed that there was a partial opposite trend in the views of women, men, and people of different ages.
Finland introduced new gambling regulations at the beginning of the year. This required mandatory player identification for Veikkaus games.
