Finland’s gaming monopoly’s sales fall on lottery disinterest

Finland’s newly consolidated gambling monopoly is blaming a paucity of major lottery jackpots for its falling sales.

The new Veikkaus, which began life at the start of the year after the merger of Finland’s three previously separate state-owned gambling monopolies, reported sales of just over €2.1b in the first half of 2017.

The sales figures marks a decline of 0.5% from what the Veikkaus (lotteries and betting), Ray (slot machines and Fintoto (horseracing) divisions generated on their own in the same period last year. Profit fared even worse, falling 3.3% to €665.7m.

Regardless, Veikkaus CEO Olli Sarekoski hailed the operator passing the 2m milestone of registered customers, which Sarekoski claimed represented two-thirds of Finland’s adult gamblers.