Wow.

Some context:

• Gambling ads are illegal in Finland.

• LIDL is part of the Big Three store chains in Finland. But it only holds 9.6% of the market, K-Mart has 36.5% and S-Mart has 46.2% .

• LIDL’s demographic is younger in comparison to the other two. LIDL stores are mainly located to more populous areas, some older folks resent them because they have less Finnish brands they are familiar with and lack locally produced food, but also because they are a foreign chain.

• 2009 Slot Machine age rating goes from 15 (Age of criminal liability) to 18 (legal age)

• 2011 Slot Machines start to accept credit cards in addition to the cash

• 2014 Slot Machines started to accept contactless payments

• 2019 Government took heat because public became aware the National Gambling Org had used the membership data to maximize profitability i.e. Installing new Slot Machines to problematic gambling hotspots.

• 2020 Covid-19 pandemic starts

• 2020 Summer, National Gambling Org begins to demand ‘every person looking younger than 30 must carry identification to be allowed to use Slot Machines’. Legal age stays at 18.

• 2020 During the year non-LIDL chains removed 8000 (43% of all) slot machines, because of the exploitation concerns, lack of profitability and aged machinery.

• Young adults and middle aged have moved to lootboxes, mobile games, crypto and online gambling platforms.

• There is no big Anti-gambling movement in Finland. National Lottery, Saturday Joker, Scratch cards, Eurojackpot, online casinos and lootboxes are not taking heat currently.

• Foreign Gambling Orgs have for years lobbied against the “illegal monopoly” because they want to pocket some of the money.

• Foreign orgs have circumvented gambling advertisement laws and are currently sponsoring lot of Finnish streamers on Twitch to play on their gambling platforms. Gambling is one of the most common categories for the Finnish speaking streamers.

• 2021 January, Slot Machines were deanonymized, you can’t use one without having the National Gambling Card. Government sees the time spent gambling and the money spending of every user.

• 2021 April, LIDL removes all 250 Slot Machines they had(2.38% of the total when compared to 2021, 1.35% if comparing to 2020)

In my opinion, LIDL’s move to remove Slot Machines costs them all but nothing, but guarantees positive headlines. I think it was the obvious business choice to make.

Now about the above comment.

The existence of our government-owned betting agency is just schizophrenic: it’s supposed to be for “responsible gaming”

This is the reasoning Finnish Government has given to the European Gaming and Betting Association to avoid anti-competitive ruling that would break the National Gambling Organization’s monopoly in Finland. However, the goal of the monopoly is closer to “Responsible gaming profit”. Finland does not want any individual or company to profit from Finnish gambling. Instead the profit made from Finnish gamblers is reinvested back to the Finnish society rather than to rich person’s bank account. Not allowing companies profit by exploiting gambling addicts is not something that should be called mentally ill behavior.

In fact, in one survey 31 % of Finns want the monopoly abolished and replaced with a gambling license system similar to Sweden.

31% against the monopoly, 27% supported the monopoly, 42% had no opinion, Margin of error 3.1% This survey from March 2019 that you have linked was commissioned by the competition.

‘Kasino Curt’ would directly benefit from the end of Finnish Gambling Monopoly. Survey was conducted by Bilendi Oy which mainly does pro-consumerism surveys.

It baffles me why someone would think this survey is accurate or trustworthy.

And most importantly, you have ignored the comprehensive national survey by Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.( Link English abstract page 12 )

Published in 2020, National survey reports that 71% The Finns support keeping the National Gambling Monopoly and 21% want to abolish it. Current Finnish Government is also moving to strengthen the Gambling Monopoly with Lotteries Act this year and there has not been a public outcry condemning this action.

Quite frankly I don’t think you are only misleading people by insinuating that the Finns want to adopt the Swedish license system, you are spreading blatant misinformation.

Sadly many politicians have this mentality of “Finnish exceptionalism” where a thing successful elsewhere cannot be adopted because “in Finland it’s a totes different thing”.

Firstly, I don’t understand why you have a condescending attitude against the people you disagree with. Secondly, the “Finnish Exceptionalism” is the cop out that is used when one wants to avoid admitting that Finland lacks monetary capital, political influence or human resources to do something. Being the poorest Nordic country is a sore spot to some Finnish people.

Lastly, You did not give the Lemmy users any reason to believe that the Swedish Gambling License would be the superior system. I hope you can see the irony of it. While claiming that the people who hold the opposite view from you have fallen into a mental trap, you yourself have displayed the classic “Gladstone Complex”.

To the Non-Finn Lemmy users, the simplified explanation of Gladstone complex is “Everything is better in Sweden, always”.

@QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz you should explain what (in your opinion) makes the Swedish Gambling License system superior to the existing Finnish Gambling Monopoly, and why did you ignore the National Survey commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.