Experiencing COVID-19 as gamblers: Availability restrictions, services, and habits

During COVID-19, many land-based gambling opportunities and help services closed. Three qualitative studies were conducted in Finland during this time. The studies examine the experiences of Finnish gamblers regarding availability restrictions, services, and gambling during the pandemic.

The qualitative data consist of two online questionnaires: the first conducted during spring 2020 (N=847), the second during spring 2021 (N=184) and of qualitative interviews (N=27) conducted during spring 2021. Findings show that Finnish gamblers have experienced relief over gambling availability restrictions. Reduced overall gambling consumption has been experienced as reduced harms and reduced service needs. The opening of land-based gambling has resulted in some resuming old gambling habits, but others have maintained non-gambling.

COVID-19 has provided an exceptional opportunity to study the impact of availability restrictions. The results support the total consumption model: reduced total consumption during the pandemic appears to be connected to reduced harms.