Finnish Officials have found that the official age restrictions on gambling machines, which is 15 is not being enforced by anyone but maybe a handful of people.
In a recent survey of 12 to 17 year old children from
Finland more then half of them admitted to spending money on gambling in one form or another in the past year. More then two thirds of those over 14 had gambled and nearly one third of those under 14 had also gambled.
The Study also showed that the kids liked the gambling machines over the other types of game of chance, and one out of five kids said they play at least once a week.
This study and one that shows the poor monitoring practices of the age limits, have finally been concluded and revealed by the Taloustutkimus market research company for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
In one of the studies kids over the age of 15, but look younger were asked to go into shops and buy lottery tickets and play the slot machines, of these kids only 7% were asked their age or asked for ID.
The other study was performed over the phone to kids between 12 and 17. The kids were asked if they ever gambled how often they gambled and how much they spent on gambling.