Authors

• Veikkaus Oy

Keywords

addiction, debts, gambling, interpersonal relations, well-being (health)

Abstract

The survey studied gambling behaviour and problem gambling in Finland. The study was conducted by the state-owned gambling monopoly company Veikkaus Oy to provide up-to-date information on gambling habits and the extent of problems caused by gambling. Many questions used in the survey were based on the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS-R), with some adaptations to Finnish circumstances.

First, the respondents were asked whether they had ever gambled, whether they had gambled in the past 12 months and whether they had used Veikkaus or foreign gambling company games. Those who had gambled on foreign websites were asked which service providers they had used and why they had used foreign ones. Next questions charted how often the respondents did certain types of gambling (lottery, online poker, slot machines, gambling onsite in casinos, scratch cards etc.)

Problems caused by gambling during the past 12 months were investigated by asking how much money the respondents usually spent on gambling a week, how often they went back another day to win back money lost, claimed to others to be winning money when were in fact losing, or gambled more than they had intended. Other questions explored whether the respondents had felt guilty when gambling, had wanted to stop gambling but hadn't thought they could, had hidden betting slips, documents related to debts and other signs of gambling from important people in their life.

Financial consequences were studied with questions focusing on arguments with others over the way the respondents handled money, had these arguments been centered on gambling, had the respondents borrowed money from someone and not paid back because of gambling, had they taken time from work or study to gamble, and had they borrowed or acquired money to gamble or pay gambling debts and from whom or where. Finally, the respondents were asked which types of gambling they felt might cause them problems in managing their gambling.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age group, education level, average monthly income, socio-economic status, degree of urbanisation of the municipality of residence, region (NUTS3) and major region.