Last reviewed 26 October 2026
Responsible Gaming
Everything described here is arranged in person, with people who work in the building. None of it can be done by filling in a form from home.
The house position
The gallery is one small room in a hotel. The building doesn't exist for it, and the business doesn't depend on it. That gives us a freedom many houses lack: we can afford to tell a guest to go to bed, and we do.
Gaming here is meant to be an evening out, and the house has no loyalty scheme, tiers or card to collect, nothing that rewards coming back more often. The staff on the floor are not paid on what the tables take. We don't count that as generosity; it is how we would want the room run if we were sitting at it.
Strictly adults
Eighteen is the legal age in Finland and the only age we recognise. Photo identification is checked at the door on every visit without exception, for guests staying in the house and for the same person on consecutive nights alike. Nobody under 18 enters the gallery for any reason, whether to watch, to collect a parent or to pass through. Anyone who presents another person's document is refused entry for good.
What the staff can arrange
Ask the inspector on the floor or the duty manager downstairs. Any of these is set up in a minute and written in the evening's book:
- A time limit. Tell us the hour you want to stop and you will be told when it arrives, once, at the table, without fuss.
- A spending limit. A cap you set for the evening. When you reach it the table stops taking from you, and no amount of persuasion at the table will move it.
- A break. A fixed pause, usually twenty minutes, away from the floor. The staff will keep your seat if the room is quiet, but not if it is busy.
- A quiet period. A few days or a few weeks during which you are not admitted. No reason is needed and none is asked for.
- Self-exclusion. A longer and deliberately more formal arrangement, described below.
Self-exclusion is arranged in person at reception
Come to the front desk at any hour reception is staffed and ask to speak to the duty manager. It takes a short conversation, a form, and a photograph taken with your consent so that the door staff can recognise you. You choose the length: six months, a year, or indefinitely. It takes effect at the door the same evening.
While it runs you cannot enter the gallery, and the hotel will not take a booking for a gaming package of any kind. Your stay at the hotel is unaffected, and a room, a table at Vaaka and the sauna are all still yours. It cannot be ended early, because that is what makes it work.
The duty manager keeps the record and the door staff see it; no one else does. It is not shared with any other business, register or authority, and it is destroyed when the period ends.
No credit, and no cash machine
We do not lend, cash cheques, advance money against a room bill or hold anything as security. There is no cash machine on the gaming floor, in the gallery, in the lobby or anywhere else in the building, and we will not direct you to the nearest one. If the evening's money is gone, the evening is over. Staff will not help you find more, and they have been told not to.
Signs worth noticing
These are the things our staff are told to watch for, and they are just as useful read about yourself:
- Playing for longer than you meant to, often, and being surprised by the hour.
- Going back the same evening for more money after deciding to stop.
- Chasing what you lost instead of playing for the evening you came for.
- Being short with staff or other guests in a way that is not like you.
- Playing alone when you came with people, or hiding how long you were upstairs.
- Money that should be for something else being used here.
- Feeling relief instead of pleasure when you sit down.
One of these on one night means little. Several of them over a season are worth talking over with someone, and a doctor or a person you trust is better placed to help than we are. What we can do is make the room unavailable to you, and we will do that the moment you ask.
How the staff are trained
Everyone who works the gallery, the door and the front desk does a day of training before their first shift and a half-day refresher each year. It covers checking documents, spotting the signs above, setting a limit without an audience, refusing service without a scene, and taking a self-exclusion request calmly at any hour. The duty manager rehearses the awkward conversations with new staff until they are no longer awkward.
Staff are told that stopping someone is never a mistake. No member of staff has ever been questioned for turning a guest away, and none will be.
How to ask
Tell the inspector at the table, the person at the gallery door or whoever is at reception, and any of them will fetch the duty manager. You can also telephone +358 2 415 7390 and ask for the duty manager at any hour, the middle of the night included. If you are asking on behalf of someone travelling with you, we will listen, though we can only act on a self-exclusion the person requests themselves.
None of this is handled by email or through this website, since a door only works if a person is standing at it.