Finland: Gambling monopoly gone

The state gambling monopoly is now set to disappear from the next EU member state. Just a fortnight ago, the Finnish government announced that the gambling monopoly is to expire at the end of 2026. But what goals are politicians in Finland pursuing with this and are they perhaps even taking Germany as a role model?

It was only a few weeks ago that we at GambleJoe asked ourselves whether a monopoly in online gambling was a mistake. In particular, we focussed on the fact that Casinos Austria AG still has a monopoly on online gambling in Austria. Finland also still has a state gambling monopoly. However, this is likely to come to an end at the beginning of 2027.

Finland wants to introduce a licence system and open up the gambling market

The press release published by the Finnish government on 3 July reveals that the initial plan is to phase out the current gambling monopoly, initially for sports betting and online casinos.

Similar to Germany, a licence system is to be introduced in Finland so that providers will have to apply for a licence. It is not yet known which specific player protection regulations and other requirements the licence holders in Finland will have to fulfil. Over a year ago, we summarised the most annoying player protection regulations in Germany from a player's perspective.

There is currently talk that identity and age checks will definitely be carried out in licensed online casinos. In addition, the Finns also want to introduce a cross-provider blocking file, similar to that in Germany. There are also already endeavours to limit advertising and sponsoring. It will be interesting to see which regulations will actually apply in Scandinavia when the market opens in January 2027.

The current situation in Finland is that the gambling company Veikkaus has a monopoly on all types of gambling in Finland. However, we reported almost exactly a year ago that unregulated gambling is a problem in Finland.

Both gambling fans and the Finnish government could benefit from the liberalisation of the market. Why? It's simple: after all, the licence system brings a lot of money into the state coffers. And players benefit from the fact that they can choose from a wide range of legal providers and that there is competition.

In the course of liberalising the market, the Finnish government is also planning to set up a supervisory authority to monitor the gambling market accordingly. In Germany, the Joint Gaming Authority of the federal states (GGL) is responsible for this.

Conclusion

By abolishing the state gambling monopoly, the Finnish government intends to tighten up gambling policy in the country. Specifically, the aim is to improve and intensify player protection and state controls by opening up the market. A look at the planned approach shows that the Finns may have modelled their market liberalisation on Germany. Here, too, they want to focus on sports betting and online casinos, set up their own gambling authority, protect players with extensive player protection measures and present gamblers with as varied an offering as possible.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/international-fahne-flagge-finnland-2684761/