Veikkaus Oy is a Finnish government-owned betting agency which holds a monopoly in the country. It was formed in 2017 as a merger of three previously existing betting and gambling agencies of Veikkaus, Fintoto and Finland's Slot Machine Association.[2]
In January 2019, Veikkaus announced a plan to reduce its workforce by around 400 positions, while also announcing "significant overhauls of our gaming locations and an end to the restaurant gaming table business".[3]
A survey, conducted by Finnish polling specialist Bilendi on behalf of Kasino Curt, says that more Finns support than oppose the idea of abolishing Finland’s gambling monopoly and adopting a gambling licence system. The interviews were conducted within Bilendi Oy’s nationwide consumer panel during March 20 to 24 2019. The survey error margin is ±3.1 percentage points. The survey found that 31 per cent of Finns want to abolish the gambling monopoly and adopt a gambling licence system instead, whereas 27 per cent of Finns are against the idea. The rest either cannot say their opinion or have a neutral stance in the matter.[4]