Winning formula RAY

WINNING FORMULA

The Finnish slot machine association RAY has the exclusive right to operate slot machines and casino games in Finland. All the proceeds are used to support Finnish health and social welfare organisations.

For decades, gambling in Finland has been strictly regulated. RAY (Raha-automaattiyhdistys) was founded in 1938. Its monopoly over slot machines throughout the country was granted by the Finnish state. Today the company controls the distribution of slot machines in Finland’s cafés and amusement arcades. RAY collects the revenue from the slot machines and pays rent to those owners of amusement arcades and restaurants who have installed slot machines on their premises.

After RAY has paid all its overheads, the money left over is used for charitable purposes. Every year, money from RAY reaches around 800 Finnish charities, including those for the rehabilitation of war veterans and for the care of disabled war veterans in nursing homes. Other beneficiaries include charities like the Finnish Association for Mental Health.

Activities

There is much more to RAY than just a grantawarding public body. Before any profits can be spent, RAY’s staff have to work to generate the revenue. Its headquarters are in Espoo, near Helsinki, and it employs 1600 people. The scope of the organisation covers the whole of the country, so many of the employees work outside the head office. These include the dealers who supply slot machines to restaurants and amusement arcades all over Finland. It also operates 70 gaming arcades of its own, and even runs a casino, the Grand Casino Helsinki.

The casino in Helsinki, which generates about four per cent of RAY’s annual revenue, is the only legal casino in the whole of Finland. Slot machines often have to be replaced to meet changing tastes. Its slot machines have an average working lifetime of six years before they are replaced. It buys between 2000 and 3000 new slots every year. The company has stopped making its own machines, and instead it uses subcontractors, but most of the games on the slots are its own designs. RAY

closely monitors its machines to gauge their popularity with the players. It collects data from the machines in all the different outlets, so it knows which machines are underperforming and can take them away. This also means that it knows which machines are most likely to succeed. Online gaming

The Internet is changing the way people do business. RAY is no exception, and has now established its presence online. After receiving its online gaming licence from the Finnish government, it has been running a successful online gaming service since 2010. The site offers Finnish gamblers the chance to play over 150 different games, including movie-based games like Gladiator and the Pink Panther. In addition, it offers an online poker service.

Some of the online games available, like Tuplapotti and Tähti, are RAY classics and are already familiar to consumers from the slot

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machines. “We create our own games and we buy them in as well,” explained a company spokesperson. “Out of our ten most popular online games, around half are our own.” RAY has 40 in-house programmers whose job is to create new games. Other online games are purchased from the international online gaming software company Playtech. “We work closely with Playtech, our business partner for Internet services.”

RAY now plans to offer customers a responsible gaming tool, Playscan, which will analyse their gaming habits and identify potential problems or excesses. “If there has been a sudden change in someone’s gaming behaviour, we will be able to send him a warning. We bought the software from a Swedish company. We are already gathering the data and soon we will be launching the service.”

Growth

RAY’s website is only available to Finnish gamblers, but there are many alternative gaming websites for the Finns to choose from. By moving into the world of online gaming, RAY has therefore entered a competitive arena in which, unlike the arrangements for slot machines, it does not have the monopoly. Nevertheless, online gaming is a lucrative business, and RAY is determined to capture a greater share of this market so it can raise more money for charity.

“Online gaming is a tough sector and we know we have to be very good to succeed. But the Internet is a good field to achieve further growth as the market is developing very strongly. By ensuring that we always have new games to offer, we are confident that we will be able to grow. We believe that we have one important advantage, which is that we know the customers in Finland better than anybody else. We have a clear understanding of what they want, so we can ensure that our offering is adapted to meet their demands.” n