Annual report 2019 Summary

This report presents Peluuri’s activities and its key figures in 2019. The main focus of Peluuri’s reporting is on the statistics gained from the helpline and chat, which provide a great vantage point onto the changing harms of gambling.

Peluuri's Annual report 2019 Summary

  • The strong growth in the number of contacts seen in 2018 levelled off in 2019.
  • When compared to the previous year, there was only moderate growth in the number of discussions concerning gambling problems on the helpline: from 1868 calls in 2018 to 1900 calls in 2019.
  • In 2019, 404 discussions that related to gambling problems took place on the chat. In 2018 the number of such discussions was 342.

Throughout the time Peluuri has been in operation, the most significant form of gambling that results in gambling problems has been slot machines; all other forms of gambling are left far behind. In 2019, the primary form of problematic gambling was slot machines either online or offline in 83% of the cases (43% online and 40% offline).

What is significant here is that for the first time ever, online slot machines superseded physical slot machines as the primary problem.

The Internet has been growing its share as a gambling channel in recent years

  • The rise in the number of contacts to Peluuri from 2017 to 2018 was significant, but in 2019 the level remained where it was in 2018.
  • Of those contacts where the primary channel of gambling could be identified (out of all gambling problem contacts, phone calls + chat contacts), the share of online gambling was 62% in 2019.
  • In 2017 the share of online gambling was 44%.

The share of gamblers in major debt seems to have remained at the quite high level of the previous year.

  • When the debt amount has come up in contacts with gamblers, the most common amount has fallen between 20 000 – 50 000 euros.
  • In 2019, 65% of those gamblers who contacted Peluuri and stated their debt amount (N=234) were over 10 000 euros in debt (in 2018 this share was 67%). Approximately 4% had debts exceeding 100 000 euros.
  • Online gamblers accrued a majority (75%) of significant debts. For a large share of gamblers, getting into debt involved multiple different consumption credit loans.