Online gambling and pornography addiction spread into workplaces

Online gambling and excessive pornography use are becoming more common in workplaces, Yle reports. Mervi Malin-Santos, an addiction counsellor at healthcare company Mehiläinen, says she meets a new person with a gambling addiction roughly once a week.

After gambling addiction, excessive pornography use is the most common problem she encounters. Such cases come up in her work every month.

“Addictions are still a small but growing problem because they are not recognised in workplaces or occupational healthcare, and people do not seek treatment until they feel they are in such serious trouble that they have to ask for help,” Malin-Santos says.

Online addictions can reduce work performance and consume working time. Gambling can also cause major financial losses, but employees generally remain silent about the problem.

Three large employers contacted by Yle, engineering company Metso, the City of Tampere and the Finnish Customs, said online addiction had not emerged as an issue in their organisations. The Federation of Finnish Enterprises has also received no questions about online addiction from its small and medium-sized business members.

According to Malin-Santos, all the gambling-addicted clients she has seen have been men of different ages and from different occupations. None was referred by an employer. They either sought help themselves or were urged to do so by a spouse.

There is no precise information on the total number of people with online addictions or at-risk internet use. Malin-Santos estimates that they account for around 10 percent of the population, which would mean about half a million people are already addicted to the internet or at significant risk of becoming so.

Restrictions can be installed on phones and laptops to block access to gambling websites, but Malin-Santos says they are easy to bypass. Even paid versions installed on phones are not foolproof, and closing gambling accounts does not help because new ones can always be opened. An employee may also use a private phone instead of a work device.

“Restrictions are not the solution, only a delay,” Malin-Santos says.

Mehiläinen launched a pilot online support group for people with gambling addictions in July. The group has four to six participants at a time and is led by two addiction counsellors.

Malin-Santos says the first experiences have been encouraging, particularly because participants can support one another. Hearing that others have faced similar problems can ease the stigma and shame associated with addiction.

Recovery is slow, however, and relapses are common. Malin-Santos says setbacks can also provide useful material for treatment because people can learn from them.