Veikkaus mulls stopping gambling in restaurants,casinos

The state-run betting agency Veikkaus is considering to close down gambling operation in restaurants, casinos, bars and other night places gradually due to a redundancy move, which will cut about 400 jobs, reported national broadcaster Yle.

More digital gambling business prompted the authority to close the gaming table business, said the report quoting the authority.

The company operates now 187 gaming tables in 162 restaurants, bars, casinos and other night spots.

The company on Monday announced that it is initiating redundancy talks involving 1,300 employees out of total about 2,000 with the view to reduce its payroll by about 400 workforces.

About 50 percent of the employees are facing lay-off negotiations in the Helsinki region while the rest from the others parts of the country.

"Due to structural changes, our network of sales locations has shrunk considerably in recent years. Therefore we are planning significant overhauls of our gaming locations and an end to the restaurant gaming table business," said the Yle report quoting Veikkaus CEO Olli Sarekoski as saying, adding that the cuts are necessary because of intensifying digital competition and business shifting onto digital channels.