Finns love to take a punt – that much is not up for debate.
The Nordic country has one of the highest gambling participation rates in the world – around 70% of the population participates in some form of wagering each year, spurred by widespread availability. Watching lottery draws on TV on a Saturday is part of the national zeitgeist. Walk into many supermarkets, petrol stations and kiosks in Finland and you’ll find rows of slot machines.
Those slot machines – as well as all other forms of gaming in the country – are currently under the exclusive purview of state-owned Veikkaus, one of the last holdouts of a fading era of government monopolies in Europe’s gambling industry.
