Alexander Stubb, the President of Finland, has given the final seal of approval to the overhaul of the country’s gambling legislation, set for 2027.
The President’s green light comes exactly one month after MPs approved the Gambling Bill with 158 in favour, meaning around 95% of legislators participating in the vote were in favour.
Replacing the monopoly held by Veikkaus Oy, the state-owned betting, gaming and lotteries operator, is an idea that has gained broad political support in Finland. Veikkaus also supports the abolition of its own monopoly, citing Finland’s longstanding struggles with channelisation and the difficulty of competing against offshore firms.
The four parties of the governing coalition, the Finns, National Coalition, RKP and KD, pushed for legislation, while The Left Alliance and Greens were also in favour albeit with some reservations.
Timelines confirmed
The Finnish betting and gaming market will go live on 1 July 2027, with the launch date pushed back from the initial starting point of 1 January that year.
Licences will be issued for betting, online casino and slots, and online bingo, while Veikaus will retain exclusive rights for land-based casinos and slots, lottery games and scratch cards.
Companies interested in entering Finland’s multi-licence market will be able to apply with the National Police Board from 1 March 2026, which will remain the chief regulator of Finnish gambling until 1 July 2027.
From this point onwards, all regulatory and licensing functions will be taken over by the Finnish Supervisory Agency. B2B licensing will also be tightened up, with licence holders only permitted to use gambling software developed by firms with a Finnish gambling software licence from 1 July 2028.
Reservations remain
As stated above, some concerns about the future of Finnish gambling were still held by the Green and Left parties during the legislative process – though both also believe that re-regulation of Finnish gambling is a necessity.
Finland has long struggled to keep channelisation rates at the desired level of 90%, and many Finns are gambling not with Veikkaus but with unlicensed offshore companies. This means two things – firstly a lack of guaranteed player protection, and secondly and perhaps most significant for the government, a lack of tax revenue.
Both the Finns and Green alliance wanted to see more restrictions on marketing, with tobacco-style health warnings on gambling products. These suggestions, made by members of the parliamentary Constitutional Committee, were rejected by the Administrative Committee.
However, industry stakeholders are still concerned about the vagueness of some of the legislation’s provisions around marketing as well as hefty restrictions on affiliate marketing.
The concept of ‘moderate marketing’ and what fits under this terminology is an area of confusion. It seems likely that issues like this will be ironed out in secondary legislation following the market launch next year.
What we do know is that marketing must include the age limit for gambling and signpost problem gambling prevention and treatment tools. Marketing will also be permitted on TV, radio and in newspapers, and on operator’s social media accounts as long as posts are ‘not interactive with consumers’.
Influencer marketing and direct marketing by phone, i.e. SMS messaging promotions, are not allowed. Similar to laws in the UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere, advertising needs to be explicitly steered away from under-18s.
The likelihood is though that once the market launches Finns will be exposed to a lot more gambling marketing than before. The same thing happened in the Netherlands following the 2021 re-regulation, and backlash against this led to subsequent marketing restrictions which have proven very unpopular with the local industry.