KELA, the Social Insurance Institute of Finland has revised its policy on gambling and social benefits effective from October 2024.

The Institute serves as the general provider of economic assistance and securities for Finnish communities and citizens.

With the new policy, KELA will now examine both winnings and gambling expenditures when assessing economic support for individual recipients.

Previously, KELA only considered gambling winnings in its evaluations of social assistance. This policy change comes from KELA’s decision to monitor gambling expenditure to reduce financial difficulties caused by gambling.

The updated guidelines aim to prevent social assistance recipients from being unfairly impacted by gambling winnings and to help address financial issues linked to problem gambling.

Starting in October, KELA will assess customers’ gambling accounts by calculating the difference between stakes and winnings, focusing on gambling activities over a longer period rather than just individual transactions.

The agency’s evaluation of gambling expenditure can only be reviewed by Veikkaus OY accounts – as the state-owned gambling monopoly of Finland. All Veikkaus customers must identify and register, allowing for self-imposed gambling restrictions and monitoring.

KELA upholds its commitment that social assistance should be used for essential living expenses, but is concerned that low-income individuals use of benefits to gamble.

According to KELA “circa 5% of social assistance recipients use their social assistance for gambling”. KELA can alert social services of a customer’s wellbeing of their gambling threats, but on condition of  customer’s consent.

Marja-Leena Valkonen, General Manager of KELA’s Benefits Programme, said: “We don’t tell our customers how to use their social assistance, but we are concerned when low-income individuals spend it on gambling. Social assistance is a last-resort financial aid meant for essential expenses like rent and food. We want to help those whose financial problems are worsened by gambling.”

Finland’s government plans to relaunch its gambling regime by 2027, opening up the online gambling market to competition and ending Veikkaus’s monopoly.

In July, the Ministry of the Interior sought feedback from government agencies and departments on introducing a modern gambling regime by 2027.

Changes to social assistance policies aim to support Finland’s transition to an open, competitive gambling framework, and KELA will provide the government with deeper insights into problem gambling during this process.

Source