Finland's Slot Machine Association or RAY ( fi, Raha-automaattiyhdistys) was a government-supervised and -owned nonprofit gaming (

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

) association (

statutory corporation A statutory corporation is a government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, thus, they are statutes owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government to the (in ...

) in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. On January 1, 2017, RAY merged with the government-supervised and -owned nonprofit betting agency

Veikkaus Veikkaus Oy is the Finnish government-owned betting agency which holds a monopoly in the country. It was formed in 2017 as a merger of three previously existing betting and gambling agencies of Veikkaus, Fintoto and Finland's Slot Machine Assoc ...

and . The new company that was founded as a result is also called "

". RAY was a gambling monopoly whose proceedings went to domestic charity such as pensioner care and gambling addiction treatment. While RAY was best known for its

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s, the company also dealt in

online gambling Online gambling is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for the Liechtenstein International Lottery in ...

and controlled the only official casino in Finland, Casino Helsinki. RAY's operations were governed by legislation and decrees. The operations of the other Finnish gaming organisations, Veikkaus and Fintoto, are also based on the Finnish Lotteries Act. The act was last amended in 2012. RAY's revenue came from slot machines, casino games, and casino and digital gaming. All the proceeds from RAY's gaming operations were used to support Finnish health and welfare, and these funding decisions were also based on legislation. The history of the Tuplapotti predecessor, the Potti game, dates back to 1986, and in the 1990s a newer version of it was developed that rose to much greater popularity than its predecessor. The game was developed by

(by then known as RAY), and the game is still one of the favorite gambling games in Finland.

References

Gambling companies of Finland Slot machine manufacturers Online gambling companies of Finland {{gambling-stub