Einar Hermannsson, chairman of SÁÁ, has stated that the company will receive 55 million ISK this year due to their decision to stop the operation of slot machines.
Over the past few weeks, there has been lots of pressure on different companies from the Gambling Addiction Association to stop the operation of slot machines as it has been believed they have a social responsibility to do so.
Olís, Snælandsvídeó, Núpalind and Skálinn in Þorlákshöfn have all halted the operation of slot machines due to the pressure.
Einar says he is convinced that it was the right decision for the company to withdraw from this operation despite the foreseeable loss of revenue.
“We put humanity above money”
In an interview with RÚV, Einar said: “We are treating these people who will be addicted to these boxes and it is very difficult to justify helping people up and then kicking them along the way. So we thought this was the right decision and put humanity above money.”
Einar goes on to say, “When the boxes gave the most, they were almost 120 million a year or 10 million a month, which is of course extremely important in our operations. This has been declining a lot in recent years and I think this year would have yielded 55 million. We just decided to go other ways to collect this money.”
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