The Finnish government-owned operator has emerged as the inaugural gaming enterprise globally to mandate identification for both digital and physical gaming activities. The decision, announced in early November, delineated plans for enforcing identification checks across all games commencing in 2024. This initiative follows a precedent set in 2023, introducing analogous identification prerequisites for coupon-based games such as Lotto and Eurojackpot.
The primary objective behind the identification requirement is to curtail gaming-related adversities, streamline age verification procedures, and foster a more secure gaming environment. Players will authenticate their identity through familiar methods akin to those used for coupon games, such as utilizing a Veikkaus Card, official identification documents like a driver’s license, personal ID, Kela card, or a digital card accessible via the Veikkaus application.
Susanna Saikkonen, Veikkaus’ Responsibility Director, remarked, “From the beginning of 2024, Veikkaus will be the first gaming company in the world to require identification in all digital and physical channel games.”
“When the customer can play only with identification, it is possible for him to track his total playing from the game history. As the year changes, scratch cards also come under the annual loss limit and game suspensions.”
Ville Venojärvi, Veikkaus’ Head of Lottery Games , expressed, “The change is certainly big for our lottery players, but identification is already quite familiar to players from the coupon games side. “This Christmas’s lottery sale was quite in line with expectations. Even though lotteries purchased this Christmas can be redeemed without identification until the end of 2024, there was no evidence that lotteries were purchased for storage. This also shows that identification is a familiar procedure for our players and we expect this to go well with lottery sales as well.”
Veikkaus is gearing up for reforms in the Finnish gambling sector that would dismantle its monopoly. While the state-owned company isn’t staunchly against the alterations, it cautioned that the substantial transformation would necessitate significant internal reorganization. Consequently, the operator cautioned that several hundred Veikkaus employees could face job losses. Veikkaus anticipates that approximately a quarter of its workforce will experience some form of impact due to these impending changes.
