Finland to create state-owned monopoly giant
Veikkaus, RAY and Fintoto to be merged into single entity with estimated annual profits of £900m in bid to create a state operator which can fend off foreign competition
Finland’s Ministry of the Interior has said it will merge three of the country’s state-owned gambling monopolies in a bid to create a firm which can better safeguard Finland’s monopoly system.
Sports betting and lottery operator Veikkaus, casino and slots operator RAY and horse racing operator Fintoto will begin preparations to merge into a single state-owned entity in a move the government says will allow for more improvements to the offer while protecting the sector’s welfare contribution.
The merger will create an operator which will return around £900m a year to good causes, with Veikkaus alone reporting full year digital gross gaming revenues of around £211m in 2014.
Finland’s Interior Minister Petteri Orpo said that with increasing competition from abroad the three companies could no longer compete independently, adding the merger should take around 18 months to complete.
The government said it remains committed to Finland’s monopoly system which sees gaming revenues distributed to charitable causes, with a strong belief that the system is also the best way to prevent gambling-related abuses in the country.
And in a statement announcing the merger, the government also said that the European Union remains supportive of its monopoly stance, citing the social responsibility contribution it makes.
Earlier this year RAY’s senior vice president of business operations Timo Kiiskinen called for the government to do more to prevent offshore operators targeting Finnish players.
“Many international gambling sites are very aggressive with their direct marketing. And they make no effort to care for their customers,” he said.
Finland’s gambling industry has long been praised for its socially responsible approach. Last week à land-based operator Paf said it will fund a four-year, £240,000 research project into online gambling addiction.
And in June Paf CEO Anders Ingves told eGaming Review that despite new social responsibility measures hitting profits, the operator would not change its business model.