Authors

• Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
• Salonen, Anne (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. Health and Well-Being Promotion)

Keywords

addiction, alcohol use, debts, digital games, family members, friends, gambling, gaming machines, lotteries, social problems, well-being (health)

Abstract

The survey charted Finnish gambling habits, frequency of gambling, amount of money gambled as well as views on problem gambling and gambling policy and regulation. The term gambling is used here as an umbrella term for lotteries, slot machines, betting, bookmaking, the pools, roulette wheels, and card and dice tables as well as online variations of all of these.

First perceptions on gambling were studied. The respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with statements relating to gambling, such as "people should have the right to gamble whenever they want" and "gambling is detrimental to family life." Views were also charted on gambling advertisements, Finnish gambling policy and ways to restrict gambling.

The next section of the survey focused on the respondents' experiences of gambling. The respondents were presented with a list of various games (e.g. lotto games and scratch cards, games of chance in a casino, slot machines and online games provided by the state-owned company Veikkaus Oy) and asked whether they had played them during the previous 12 months and how often. The respondents were also asked how often they had played games of chance offered by other gaming companies online, which kinds, and why they had played these instead of the games of Veikkaus Oy. Further questions surveyed Veikkaus membership, perceptions of harmful game types, and usefulness of the ways offered by Veikkaus to control problem gambling. The respondents were also asked to estimate the average sum spent on gambling in the previous 12 months and to list the places in which they had gambled and their reasons for gambling.

The respondents' relationship to gambling was examined. They were asked how often they returned another day to try to win back the money they had lost, whether they had claimed to be winning at gambling even though they were actually losing money, whether they had gambled more than they had intended to, and whether other people had criticised them for gambling. Some questions explored whether the respondents had felt guilty while gambling, whether they had wanted to stop betting money or gambling but could not do so, and whether they had hidden their gambling habits from family members. Some questions covered arguments with the people the respondents lived with over how the respondents handled money and whether those arguments had centred on their gambling. Gambling debts were surveyed by asking whether the respondents had borrowed money from different people or sold their assets to pay off the debts.

Regarding gambling by family members, relatives and friends, the respondents were asked whether any people close to them had problems with gambling, what kind of harm these gambling problems had caused, and how much concern the problems had caused the respondents.

The final section pertained to health, well-being and non-gambling games. The respondents were asked whether they played video games or mobile games, how many hours they had played them in the previous week and month, whether they had made any in-game purchases (e.g. virtual items or characters, in-game currency), and whether they felt they might have a problem with these kinds of games. The respondents were asked to assess their current health status and were asked how often they had felt nervous, calm, despondent and happy in the previous four weeks. Finally, alcohol use was charted.

The following scales and inventories were used in the survey: Attitudes Towards Gambling Scale (ATGS-8), South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) and Gaming Addiction Scale (GAS-7).

Background variables included the respondent's year of birth, gender, marital status, region, municipality type, education, monthly net income, economic activity and occupational status.