Prevention of harms relies on gambling operators’ duty of care

Gambling operators have an obligation to ensure that their activities cause as little harm as possible. In practice, even the most basic duty-of-care measures rely on the customer’s own judgement, and even these measures can be circumvented. The so-called duty of care is vaguely defined in the new gambling legislation. The most significant improvement would be for deposit and loss limits to apply to all gambling by an individual within the licensing system.

The new gambling legislation requires customers of licensed operators to set their own deposit and loss limits for their accounts with each operator. However, the level of these limits is based on the individual’s own judgement, and the limits are operator-specific. According to experts, this leads to excessive behaviour, as it becomes more difficult to grasp the total amount spent on gambling.

"In the new system, there are dozens of licensed gambling operators. Because the deposit and loss limits set by the individual are operator-specific, they can create multiple accounts and accumulate significant losses across all of them. There is no final safeguard," says Senior Specialist Tomi Roukka from THL.

“In such a situation, operators are effectively powerless, as they do not know how many other platforms the individual has already lost money on,” he continues.

However, there is unusually broad agreement on one point: payday loans or credit services must not be offered in connection with gambling. This is prohibited by law.

Under the law, gambling operators are required to intervene in problematic gambling behaviour, but the legislation does not define what constitutes excessive gambling or how such situations should be handled. According to Roukka, this is a significant structural flaw in the new gambling system, making it difficult for the supervisory authority to operate effectively. However, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and THL have prepared guidelines for licensed operators on how to implement the duty of care.

Who has the most comprehensive overview of harms caused by gambling?

The most comprehensive overview of harms caused by gambling is held by the Finnish Supervisory Authority (LVV), as well as the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and THL. A positive aspect of the new gambling system is that more comprehensive data on gambling is collected. THL and the Ministry have access to player data from gambling operators as well as the right to obtain information on duty-of-care measures taken.

"The accumulated data and the research based on it confirm events that have already occurred. At that stage, it is no longer possible to prevent the harms already experienced by the individual. This model requires gambling operators to take proactive preventive measures."

"In a licence-based system, operators do not face a reputational risk, as they only know how an individual has behaved on their own platform," Roukka concludes.

THL plans to produce up-to-date regional information based on player data for use by wellbeing services counties, enabling them to respond to service needs arising from problem gambling.

Operators outside the new system complicate harm prevention

There are thousands of gambling operators worldwide, of which only a handful apply for a licence for the Finnish market. There are no built-in barriers or restrictions for services provided by unlicensed operators.

"Consumers may not know whether they are using a licensed operator’s service. Online, the boundary is unclear," Roukka says.

There would be many ways to steer consumers away from unlicensed gambling websites, but according to Roukka, the urgency of the legislative process for the new gambling system has meant that these have not been incorporated into the law. Such measures could, at their strongest, include blocking payment transactions to unlicensed operators or, at a minimum, informing consumers that they are about to enter an unlicensed gambling website.