Understanding the Impact of Gambling Restrictions: Insights from Finland

by Jon Scaccia April 10, 2024

In a recent, compelling study titled “Availability restrictions and mandatory precommitment in land-based gambling: effects on online substitutes and total consumption in longitudinal sales data“, researchers dive deep into the world of gambling, exploring the effects of certain public health policies on gambling behaviors. For public health practitioners, this study sheds light on how gambling consumption can be effectively managed through targeted policies.

Restricting Land-based Gambling: A Finnish Case Study

The Finnish gambling monopoly Veikkaus provided crucial data for this study, allowing researchers to analyze the impact of gambling restrictions during the 2019–2022 period, including the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. With COVID-19 bringing unprecedented restrictions on land-based gambling venues, it provided a unique opportunity to examine how these changes influenced both offline and online gambling habits.

The Decline of Land-based Gambling and Online Substitutes

One key finding was the notable decrease in total gambling consumption, mainly due to reduced land-based electronic gambling machine (EGM) use. Interestingly, this decline was not significantly compensated by a rise in online gambling or other close substitutes in the long term. This trend reflects a broader movement towards the digitalization of gambling but also highlights the effectiveness of restrictive policies on reducing total gambling consumption.

Public Health Implications: Effectiveness of Restrictive Policies

For public health professionals, these findings are a goldmine. They underscore the efficacy of availability restrictions and mandatory pre-commitment in reducing overall gambling consumption. This is crucial information for shaping future policies aimed at mitigating the harms caused by gambling.

Online Gambling: A Growing Digital Challenge

While the study notes a shift towards online gambling, particularly during COVID-19, this did not result in a significant overall increase in gambling consumption. However, the rising trend in digital gambling presents new challenges for harm prevention, emphasizing the need for effective strategies tailored to online environments.

Conclusion: A Roadmap for Public Health Strategies

This study offers invaluable insights for public health practitioners. It demonstrates that reducing exposure and availability of harmful gambling forms can effectively lower overall consumption. Importantly, it shows that public health interventions can have a substantial impact without necessarily leading to a surge in online gambling. The findings from Finland provide a template for other nations to consider in their efforts to tackle gambling-related harms.

Final Thoughts: A Call to Action for Deeper Exploration

This research invites public health practitioners and policymakers to delve deeper into the complexities of gambling behaviors and the efficacy of various interventions. It’s an invitation to explore further, to question, and to innovate in the pursuit of effective public health strategies against the backdrop of an evolving digital landscape.

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