The Ministry of the Interior of Finland has taken the first steps towards reforming its gambling system to create a regulated market by 2026, iGaming Business reported October 24.
One part of that reform is ending the monopoly of the state-owned Veikkaus. The Ministry has outlined the path the legislature must take to create that market and end that monopoly by issuing licenses to qualified online gaming companies.
The proposals—under a political steering group—will be introduced over the next two years. A working group will be made up of representatives from key ministries and authorities from different sectors. They will identify what games are covered by the new system, the license fees, taxation and tools for gambling management.
The Orpo government has been pursuing this course since it came into power in April 2023. It expects to submit a reform proposal by the spring of 2025.
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) greeted this news with enthusiasm, Gambling Insider reported October 25.
Maarten Haijer, EGBA secretary general, declared: “This is a welcome step towards meaningful and overdue gambling reform in Finland.”
He added, “The introduction of multi-licensing would provide greater choice and safeguards to Finnish consumers, ensure fairer competition between operators, and enable the Finnish authorities to have greater control over their online gambling market.”
Haijer also said, “With these changes of the Finnish legislation, all member states of the EU will now have some form of licensing regime for online gambling.”
Haijer concluded, “We look forward to continuing dialogue with the Finnish Government and local stakeholders as the regulatory discussions develop.”
One goal is to increase Finland’s channelization rate, which is low when compared to other countries in the European Union. This rate identifies the proportion of bets made with licensed providers.
A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior issued this statement: “The aim of the reform is to prevent and reduce the harm resulting from gambling and to improve the channeling rate of the gambling system in accordance with the Government Program.”
Government statistics indicate that gaming outside of Veikkaus has increased and led to considerable harm to consumers. A study done by the government suggested two options to lawmakers: strengthen the monopoly or transition into a market with licensed operators for online gaming.
The current thinking among government officials is that Veikkaus will lose its monopoly on online wagering and games, but retain it for slot machines and the lottery.
This will lead to Veikkaus being broken up into two independent companies and the gaming machines will be transferred to a third company, iGB reported.
In preparation for this, the monopoly earlier in 2023 announced it would be eliminating about 240 jobs and closing 15 to 25 gaming arcades.
A spokesman commented, “The aim is to strengthen supervision of the gambling industry when entering the license system. The preparation will take into account the social impacts of the license system, especially the impacts on gambling-related harm.”
