Online gambling in Finland: regulated market could launch earlier than expected

Finland’s gambling legislation will be sent to the European Commission by the end of this year.

Finland.- The planned opening of a competitive regulated online gambling market in Finland had been put back from 2026 to 2027, but it appears that an earlier launch may be a possibility again. A cross-party steering committee was reviewing the proposed legislation this week with an eye to submitting it to the European Commission (EC) for review next month.

If that goes ahead as expected, the government would be submitting the proposed legislation to the EC three months earlier than planned. It could feasibly receive approval from the EC by the middle of next year.

The draft legislation was published in July for a public consultation. That saw some criticism from industry stakeholders, who warned that the market may be too restrictive to allow healthy competition and a solid channelisation to licensed offerings. 

There has been particular criticism of the proposed ban on affiliate marketing and social media marketing. The European Gaming and Betting Association warned that such a ban “might backfire”, making licensed operators less competitive. 

The final decisions to be made this week include the question of the launch date for the market and also whether private operators will be allowed to offer betting on horse races or whether this will remain a monopoly segment. The horse racing sector itself has come out in favour of licensed offerings, hoping that this could improve finances.

In the meantime, the state-owned gambling operator Veikkaus has been in contract negotiations with up to 620 employees which could lead to more redundancies. The move follows a drop in gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 21 per cent in H1 and as Finland prepares to open the gambling market to competition.

Finland is one of the few remaining countries in Europe that still has a state monopoly over gambling. Norway is another major example. The Norwegian conservative party, Høyre, the main opposition in the country, has made a manifesto commitment to open the Norwegian gambling market to competition.