The number of young people who gamble regularly has decreased in Finland since 2011, when the gambling age was raised from 15 to 18. However, a significant amount of 15-16 year old students still play games of chance.
According to a report from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, gambling amongst minors has decreased since Finland increased its slot machine age limit from 15 years of age in 2011 up to 18 year olds. A quarter of boys under 18 continue to use slot machines.
A 2011 survey found that 87% of men and 54% females had played slot machines before the changes to the Lotteries Act were made.
By 2024, this was down to 6% of females and 25% of males. In 2019, a blended prevalence rate for both genders revealed that 24% of people were still using slot machines, although the number has dropped to 16% in 2019.
Slots gambling has decreased from 24% to 16% for both men and women in the period 2019-2024.
Antti Koivula, a Finnish lawyer from Legal Gaming, questioned the accuracy of the report. The report was surprising in that it attributed the drop in underage participation to the minimum 18+ age rather than the prevalence of gambling amongst minors.
He said, “My main takeaway is that 25 percent of boys aged 15 gamble. That’s way too many for me,” on LinkedIn.
In Finland, underage gambling is still prevalent.
Teachers from 177 Finnish schools collected information and found that 15% of students had said between April 2023 to April 2024 they gambled money.
In 2011, the survey did not track gambling activity in other verticals.
In 2014, statistics on general gambling included online gambling and card games such as lotteries. This report, which is conducted every 4 to 5 years in Europe to track the consumption of drugs, alcohol and gambling by teenagers throughout Europe.
By gender, 25 % of men and 4 % of women aged 18 or under admitted gambling on a variety of products. These numbers are down on 2019, where 46% of men and 21% females gambled.
This research by the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare is part of a Europe wide project called the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs. The project will also collect data in other countries, and its results will be published by 2025.
