Opening of Finland’s regulated gambling market put back to 2027

The Ministry of the Interior has opened a consultation on the planned liberalisation of gambling.

Finland.- The Ministry of the Interior has said that a regulated gambling market in Finland will open in 2027. That’s later than the target of 2026 announced a year ago.

The ministry has opened a consultation on the plans, which would end the monopoly of state-controlled Veikkaus. The consultation will run until August 18, and the ministry plans to present a draft bill in the spring 2025 parliamentary session.

The ministry said the draft bill would aim to “prevent and reduce gambling disadvantages and to improve the channelisation of demand to the legally regulated gambling system”. A new gambling regulator would be created to oversee licensing, supervision and the creation of a centralised self-exclusion database. It would charge annual fees for both operators and suppliers.

Operators would be able to apply for licences from the first quarter of 2026, while suppliers would be able to seek software provider licences from early in 2027. From 2028, operators would only be allowed to offer games from software providers licensed in Finland.

The future of Veikkaus

As for Veikkaus, the current plan is to split its monopoly lottery operation and land-based gaming from its online gambling offerings. The Ministry of the Interior has suggested that part of the state could sell part of its ownership of the company “if this was considered justified in the future from the perspective of the development of the state’s shareholder value”. Veikkaus has already closed several land-based gambling venues.