Veikkaus pushes to bring forward age verification

The Finnish gambling monopoly has called on the government to bring forward the introduction of ID verification for slot machines.

Finland.- The gambling monopoly Veikkaus has asked the Finnish government to bring forward mandatory age verification checks for slot machines.

Identification checks for slots in retail locations are set to become mandatory from 2023 under the revised Finnish Lotteries Act, but the operator is calling on the government to amend the act to introduce checks from the start of 2021. 

It says it will introduce identification checks at its own Feel Vegas and Pelaamo arcade venues from January.

Jari Heino, Senior Vice President for Channels and Sales, said: “We want to build a gaming environment where even people having trouble with controlling their gaming are looked after.

“We are constantly designing new solutions to facilitate gaming control.

“Compulsory authentication will offer us many new opportunities in this respect, and we will continue working on the implementation of these opportunities and developing them further.”

Veikkaus has also urged the government to extend the maximum loss limits imposed on iGaming products to cover retail slots from mid-2021. 

The loss limits for online gaming are €1,000 per day, or €2,000 a month although due to the pandemic limits have been temporarily reduced to €500 per day and per month until October. 

Veikkaus has also announced it will intensify a cull on slot machines at its retail venues, committing to remove 8,000 by the end of the year. 

The operator this week reported a 28.1 per cent fall in revenue year-on-year for H1.