Working group: Gambling to be operated by one company in Finland

A working group consisting of public officials proposes that the gambling activities of Veikkaus Oy, Finland's Slot Machine Association (RAY) and Fintoto Oy be merged. This proposal is included in the working group's report considering alternative options to operate gambling in Finland, which was presented to Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen today on 13 March 2015.

A horizontal parliamentary steering group also appointed for this task worked alongside the working group, commenting on its work and consulting the views of beneficiaries. The parliamentary steering group, chaired by Member of Parliament Ilkka Kanerva, agrees with the working group's proposal on a single gambling operator and proposes that this be entered in the following Government's programme.

The merger would further reinforce Finland's consistent and systematic gambling policy and contribute to preventing the negative effects of gambling.
In a single-operator model, special attention should be paid to any effects on the equine industry. With this in mind, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry should explore further how to safeguard the future of the sector if a single-operator model is adopted.

Prime Minister's Office to be responsible for ownership steering

Ownership steering should be organised in such a way that it ensures dialogue with parliamentary decision-makers and civil society. It should also be centralised. In the new model, the Prime Minister's Office would be responsible for the ownership steering of the company to be established. The new company would have a supervisory board. Furthermore, a coordinating body would be set up at the Ministry of the Interior for the management of gambling policy.

Supervision to be strengthened

The responsibility for supervising gambling operators should be transferred from the National Police Board to the Ministry of the Interior, while securing the autonomy and independence of supervision. In addition, more resources should be allocated for supervision to ensure more effective intervention in gambling activities breaching the Lotteries Act.

Beneficiaries and distribution of revenue

The aim is to enact a new act on distribution of revenue. The beneficiaries would remain the same, and the revenue from gambling activities would continue to be used for non-profit purposes. The revenue would be distributed as follows: Veikkaus Oy's beneficiaries 53%, RAY's beneficiaries 43% and Fintoto Oy's beneficiaries 4%.

The mandate of the working group was not to aim at cost savings, but of course changes like these have economic impacts. According to a study conducted by an external body, merging the gambling operators could yield annual cost synergies of up to tens of millions of euros, and similar synergies would be expected from total sales annually. The merger would allow to avoid multiple simultaneous investments and to release capital for hundreds of millions of euros at one go.
The horizontal parliamentary steering group was chaired by Ilkka Kanerva (National Coalition Party), and its members were Hanna Tainio (Social Democratic Party of Finland), Ville Vähämäki (Finns Party), Mika Lintilä (Centre Party), Silvia Modig (Left Alliance), Stefan Wallin (Swedish People's Party), Tuija Brax (Greens of Finland) and Jouko Jääskeläinen (Christian Democrats).

The working group was chaired by Director of Legislative Affairs Katriina Laitinen from the Ministry of the Interior's Police Department. The chair of a working group representing beneficiaries and of a committee steering the project was Permanent Secretary Päivi Nerg from the Ministry of the Interior.

For further information, please contact Permanent Secretary Päivi Nerg, tel. +358 295 418 803, or Director of Legislative Affairs Katriina Laitinen, tel. +358 295 488 559.