Addiction takes a serious toll on individuals, families, and societies. To prevent addiction, it is important to address the structures promoting addiction rather than focus only on individuals. Gambling products and other addictive commodities are increasingly sold and marketed online. All online activities generate vast amounts of behavioral data. Gambling companies and networks leverage such data to develop new ways to sell and market products harmful to consumers. The project will highlight how the characteristics of the online environment and the power structures of data ownership may contribute to addiction and how these can be tackled through regulation.
The project is seeking to:
Funding: ERC (European Research Council)
Participants from CEACG: Virve Marionneau (project leader)
The project investigates the commercial determinants of harm caused by supply of digital gambling in terms of game intensity and risk, value and supply chains, and the economy of surplus to society. The study is composed of three work packages (WP) that focus on the products, the surplus, and the value chains of digital gambling. The first work package analyses the role of intensive game characteristics in the growth of digital gambling. The second work package studies the supply and value chains comparing the industrial structures of traditional and digital gambling offer, the effects of digitalisation on value production and circulation, and their effects on private profits and the gambling surplus destined for public use. The third work package asks who are the actors in the networks of digital gambling globally, and how digital technology in global banking and financing affects the industrial and commercial structures of gambling.
Funding: Academy of Finland
Participants from CEACG: Pekka Sulkunen, Janne Nikkinen, Virve Marionneau, Sébastien Berret.
Partners: Eclectica Research and Training Centre, Prof. Aymeric Brody, (EPITECH university, Paris/France)
Prevention of gambling-related indebtedness at the societal level (RAVE) examines the distribution of the gambling consumption of over-indebted individuals between different gambling companies (Veikkaus, off-shore providers), gambling indebtedness and the use of borrowed money across socio-demographic variables and gambling consumption, as well as other harms associated with gambling-related indebtedness.
The research produces information on how gambling-related indebtedness could be prevented on a societal level. Projects that advance financial literacy at an individual level are important, but structural factors may contribute to their success. At the same time, the promotion of financial literacy can be more effective when specifically targeted at different groups. The results of the project contribute to identifying structural factors that obstruct financial literacy and help target financial literacy work. The research will also produce recommendations on the regulation and supply of gambling from the perspective of financial literacy.
Funding: The Finnish Ministry of Justice (Oikeusministeriö)
Partners: Takuusäätiö (Guarantee Foundation) Money at Stake project and EHYT Ry.
Participants from CEACG: Marionneau, Virve (Project manager) Havuaho, Sara (Participant), Lahtinen, Aino (Participant) and Jokirinne, Nina (Participant)
The project aims to acquire a profound understanding of the position of silent agents in the knowledge base of legislative processes that concern them, exploring epistemic struggles and questions of representation. Another aim is to disclose mechanism by which impacts occur due to the implementation of legislation. The analyses focus on silent agents whose social position arouses morally charged tensions.
Funding: The Strategic Research Council, Academy of Finland
Partners: University of Helsinki, University of Turku, Tampere University, University of Lapland, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and Frisky & Anjoy Oy.
Principal Investigator: Kati Rantala, University of Helsinki
Participants from CEACG: Anu Katainen, Veera Kankainen and Josefin Westermarck are involved in Work Package 5 concerning mental health, substance use and consumer related debt.
The international research project CIPPAL-ADAM investigates young people's exposure to alcohol advertising across six European countries: Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Ireland. The study, conducted between 2024 and 2025, includes a literature review on alcohol marketing regulations, semi-structured interviews, and a quantitative survey. It aims to understand the experiences and attitudes of young people (aged 16-19) regarding alcohol marketing on the internet and social media, as well as their views on alcohol legislation. The project is led by the French Institute for Drug and Addiction Research (OFDT).
The CIPPAL-ADAM study aims at answering the following research question:
“How do different national regulations on alcohol marketing and advertising via audiovisual media and the Internet influence teenagers and young adults’ awareness of and exposure to marketing channels? What are the differences and similarities? ”
Funding: The French Institute for Drug and Addiction Research (OFDT).
Partners: Ireland: Department of Applied Social Sciences, Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Italy: Eclectica + Research and training Social Enterprise, Lithuania: Lithuanian Tobacco and Alcohol Control Coalition (NTAKK), Switzerland: Groupe roman d’études des addictions (GREA)
Participants from CEACG: Paula Rautoja (participant), Virve Marionneau (project manager)
The CEACG studies the new casino in Tampere in various dimensions. Currently TRESINO consists of two active projects.
The new Tampere casino: Laying foundations for a longitudinal qualitative study on the impact on gambling behaviour, harm, and the community
The availability of gambling plays a considerable role in gambling consumption. Yet, the impact of availability changes in one type of game on the overall game portfolio and ensuing developments in kind and degree of gambling harm are so far only remotely understood. Also, the comprehension of the underlying mechanisms between availability and gambling consumption as well as the wider impacts on the community remain limited. This is a matter of utmost importance for sound gambling regulation. The proposed study contributes to finding answers to these questions by conducting a longitudinal qualitative interview study in the context of the opening of Tampere’s first casino.
Funding: The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies (ATS)
Scientific Advisory Board: Prof. Søren Kristiansen (Aalborg University, Denmark), Prof. Nigel Turner (The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health CAMH, Toronto/Canada)
Participants from CEACG: Michael Egerer (PI), Paula Jääskeläinen
Gambling as Part of a Regional Experience Economy Concept: A Socio-spatial Evaluation of the New Tampere Casino (2019-)
The study focuses on the Tampere casino project and its social, economic and political expectations by different stakeholders.
Funding: The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM), The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies (ATS)
Participants from CEACG: Paula Jääskeläinen (doctoral dissertation project), Matilda Hellman & Michael Egerer (supervision)
This dissertation project examines the use of classical psychedelics, the users' motives for use, meanings and reported effects of use in Finland. These compounds include mescaline, LSD, various psilocybin mushrooms, and DMT-containing natural herbs such as ayahuasca, and 5-meo-DMT (Johnson et al. 2019). These substances are classified as narcotics in Finnish legislation. Naturalistic use of classic psychedelics has grown in Finland. According to THL's most recent 2022 report, 3.4 percent of respondents had used LSD and 5.4% had used psychoactive mushrooms. (Karjalainen et al. 2023). According to Hakkarainen (2020), the increase in experimentation and use of both LSD and intoxicating mushrooms is at least partially explained by the international interest in the therapeutic use of psychedelics. The research is carried out using qualitative methods and the main material of the dissertation is the thematic interviews of 40 psychedelic users and an additional media material consisting of news articles.
The research questions of the dissertation are: how does the use of classic psychedelics appear from the perspective of the user? What kind of factors are behind the rationality and motives of users? Does the use have positive or negative effects on the users' well-being? How have psychedelics been treated in the media in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s, and have there been any changes between 2010 and 2023?
Funding: The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies (ATS) 2022-2024
Participants: Mika Tsupari (doctoral dissertation project), Matilda Hellman (CEACG , Uppsala university) & Tuukka Tammi (THL)
Finland's alcohol policy offers a unique case to examine policy changes. The law has during recent decades gone from a strict, population level policy to a more liberal one as policy changes have occurred in 1994, 2018 and in 2024 to increase availability of alcohol. These policy conditions are unique compared to other Nordic countries, that demonstrate policy stasis.
This dissertation project directs a specific interest to how alcohol-related harm is represented in alcohol law preparation in 1994 and 2018. Alcohol related harm is traditionally represented by for example (non-governmental organizations) NGOs or (non-profits) NPO:s. However, the stakeholder field in alcohol policy also provoke high levels of interests from business life as studies have identified alcohol industry as a key stakeholder in alcohol policy. Further, previous studies show high levels of corporate lobbying to steer the alcohol policy process in their favor. In this, contested policy field with numerous stakeholders, we ask: what is the role of alcohol-related harm in alcohol policy making? The research methods are qualitative and the data consist of law preparatory documents such as written stakeholders comments from hearing rounds and consultation phases.
Funding: The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies (ATS) 2023-2024
Participants: Josefin Westermarck (doctoral dissertation project), Anu Katainen (Helsinki university), Matilda Hellman (Uppsala university)