Finnish Authorities Comment and Give an Update on the Upcoming Gambling Legislation

As Finland moves closer to its long-anticipated gambling reform, clarity is finally starting to emerge, this time directly from the authorities tasked with enforcing the new system. In January 2026, the Finnish Police (Poliisihallitus) published detailed guidance and held a webinar outlining how the new Gambling Act will work in practice.

For operators, marketers, and anyone considering entering the Finnish market, the message is clear: this will be one of Europe’s most tightly regulated gambling environments. Below is a structured overview of what the authorities have confirmed so far.

A Long Transition, Not a Big Bang

The reform unfolds over several years rather than overnight. Licence applications open on 1 March 2026. Approved licences take effect on 1 July 2027, allowing licensed operators to legally offer betting and online casino games in Finland. A further layer follows in July 2028, when separate game-software licences become mandatory.

In other words, 2026–2028 is a transition period marked by preparation, regulatory testing, and technical alignment. Operators that wait for “final certainty” before acting will almost certainly be late.

Who Can Play and How Players Are Protected

Player protection sits at the core of the new law. All gambling is strictly limited to adults aged 18 and over. Registration and identity verification are mandatory, with no anonymous play permitted.

A central feature is the national peliestorekisteri, a unified self-exclusion system that allows players to block themselves from all licensed gambling services at once. Operators must integrate with this system and actively monitor player status.

In addition, every operator is required to provide tools that allow players to track their play history, set spending and time limits, and receive interventions when risky behaviour is detected. These are not UX features, they are regulatory obligations.

Marketing Rules: Narrow Channels, Clear Red Lines

Marketing is where the Finnish approach becomes particularly strict.

Authorities have clearly defined where gambling marketing is allowed: television, radio, sports and public events, print media, operators’ own websites, and their own social media channels. What matters here is ownership and control. Third-party amplification is not allowed.

Influencer marketing and affiliate marketing are explicitly prohibited. That includes paid content on personal social media accounts, revenue-share affiliate sites, and any acquisition model that relies on intermediaries promoting gambling products.

Direct marketing is allowed only to users who have given explicit consent, and phone-based marketing is completely banned. Every advertisement must clearly display the age limit and information about responsible gambling support services. This effectively forces operators to abandon the standard European acquisition playbook and rebuild marketing strategies from the ground up.

Bonuses and Promotions: Highly Restricted by Design

Bonuses, free plays, and discounts are broadly restricted. While the law allows limited incentives in specific circumstances, the default assumption is prohibition rather than permission.

Operators must be able to justify any promotional activity within tight regulatory boundaries and document how such offers do not increase gambling harm. From a practical standpoint, bonuses will no longer be a scalable acquisition tool in Finland.

Compliance and Technology: Heavy by Intention

The compliance burden is substantial and deliberately so.

Operators must report detailed, machine-readable game and account data to a centralized authority system known as the dataholvi. This includes player activity, transactions, and game events, all formatted according to technical specifications issued by regulators.

Anti-money laundering controls, fraud detection systems, and responsible gambling monitoring are mandatory. Game systems must be audited by approved external laboratories. These are not box-ticking exercises—authorities have both the tools and the mandate to verify real implementation.

Applying for a Licence: Costly and Document-Heavy

Applying for a Finnish gambling licence costs approximately €29,000 in processing fees alone. Beyond that, applicants must submit extensive documentation covering ownership structures, financial standing, AML policies, marketing plans, dispute handling processes, and technical suppliers.

The estimated processing time is three to six months, but authorities have been clear that incomplete or unclear applications will significantly delay decisions. Translation into Finnish or Swedish is required for core materials.

Enforcement Is Real, Not Theoretical

The new system comes with meaningful enforcement mechanisms. Authorities can issue fines, impose injunctions, revoke licences, and publicly disclose violations. Operators are required to document and report responsible gambling measures annually.

The lottery tax rate remains at 22%, adding another fixed cost layer to operating in Finland.

What This Means for Operators and Affiliates

The most immediate disruption is the end of affiliate and influencer marketing as it currently exists. For many international operators, this removes the simplest route to market entirely.

Marketing must shift toward owned channels, compliant search marketing with keyword restrictions, tightly controlled sponsorships (logo visibility only), and consent-based CRM. Brand marketing is possible, but only if it avoids youth audiences, interactive engagement, and any suggestion of gambling as a solution to financial or social problems.

Preparation costs are high. New entrants must invest early in compliance infrastructure, technical integrations, Finnish-language documentation, and internal governance. Finland is not a market you “test” lightly.

Veikkaus and the Unusual Competitive Landscape

Veikkaus will remain a monopoly operator for certain games while also competing in licensed markets through a separate entity. This dual structure is legal but unusual, and it will shape competition in ways that differ from Sweden, Denmark, or the UK.

Operators should expect a market where regulatory scrutiny is intense and political sensitivity remains high.

This Is a System Designed to Be Hard

The Finnish model prioritizes harm prevention and control over market growth. That is a conscious policy choice, and the Police guidance makes it clear that enforcement will follow intent, not just wording.

For operators considering Finland, success will depend less on aggressive marketing tactics and more on regulatory fluency, cultural understanding, and long-term commitment. This is not a plug-and-play market.

Those who prepare early, design compliance into their product and marketing from day one, and understand how Finnish authorities think will have a real advantage.

And those who assume Finland will “eventually loosen up” are likely to be disappointed.