Finland Has The EU’s Last iGaming Monopoly – What Does The Future Look Like?

Finland is known as the last EU member country that is still operating an iGaming monopoly in their country. For a long time, the monopoly position of Veikkaus, the government-owned iGaming operator, has been very successful. Most Finnish gamblers are familiar with Veikkaus, and for several years, most gamblers also used Veikkaus as their first-choice iGaming operator.

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In recent years, things have changed. Veikkaus is still the single largest iGaming operator in the Finnish market, but nowadays, it has lost half of its market share. In 2017, Veikkaus generated 1.78bn Euros in total gross gaming revenues. During the same year, the foreign iGaming operators generated around 240m Euros in GGR. In 2022 the numbers were 1.12bn Euros for Veikkaus and 500m Euros for the foreign operators.

Clearly, Finnish consumers weren’t happy with Veikkaus anymore and preferred to use foreign operators instead. Losing a lot of market share means less money for the government to develop the country. Things need to change, but what does the future of the Finnish iGaming market look like?

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Green light for other options?

Even though Finland is the last EU member country to operate an iGaming monopoly, things might be different soon. In August 2022, Olli Sarekoski, the CEO of Veikkaus, started a new discussion about the Finnish iGaming regulations. He questioned some aspects of the limitations and gave an idea of whether Finland should regulate the market shortly. That was the first time in tens of years that the authorities from the government-owned iGaming company showed interest in regulating the market.

In his speech, Sarekoski pointed out that Finland needs to start bringing all Finnish gambling under the same regulation. If Finland wants to take these kinds of actions, it would mean that the monopoly of Veikkaus would end. If Finland gives up Veikkaus’s monopoly position, they are likely to adopt some sort of licensing system.

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Talking with some of the Finnish iGaming industry workers, they would warmly welcome a new iGaming licensing model. For example, a Finnish casino expert from Kasinosivustoni.com commented that with the licensing model, Finland could make its iGaming market much safer than it is at the moment. According to him, the licensing model would also bring much more money for the government through taxes and license fees.

While most signs point to Finland regulating its iGaming market, they have also done some actions that give other signals. In January 2022, Finland updated its gambling law. With the new gambling law, Finnish authorities were allowed to adjust payment blocks for international iGaming sites. Many see that as a sign that Finland wants to maintain the monopoly. It’s also notable that Finland set up this law before the iGaming authorities opened the discussion about regulating the market.

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Will Finland follow Sweden, Norway, or something else?

There have been discussions about whether Finland should implement similar iGaming laws to their neighboring countries, Norway and Sweden. The fascinating part is that both countries have gone on completely different routes. Both styles have worked in their ways but have made it more or less challenging for the local players to find places to play.

The so-called Norwegian model is far more strict and grants much more power to the regulatory authorities. The main idea behind the Norwegian model is to prevent all gaming on international unlicensed iGaming sites. Norway has, for example, set payment blocks and interrupted payments from processing if someone has been playing on an unlicensed international iGaming site. With the Norwegian model, it is also a lot more challenging to find information about international iGaming sites since they made it completely illegal to advertise these sites.

Finland also has the option to adopt the Swedish licensing system. The main idea behind the Swedish model is that every site that is good enough to get the Swedish iGaming license is allowed to operate in the country. Sweden has set strict requirements for who can get their iGaming license, and now only the most trustworthy iGaming sites can compete in their country. Now the Swedish iGaming market doesn’t have any untrustworthy or low-quality sites. The Swedish government has also used most of the money from the iGaming licenses and taxes to help to reduce the number of gambling problems in Sweden.

What does the future look like for the Finnish iGaming market? Of course, it’s impossible to know the answer to that question. The most likely answer is that Finland will adopt a licensing system similar to Sweden but add some restrictions. Finland is known as a country that doesn’t want to allow advertisements from questionable topics, like alcohol, cigarettes, or iGaming. If Finland adopts a licensing model, unlike Sweden, they will disallow iGaming advertisements for the public. There are rumors that Finland could adopt a licensing model as soon as 2026, but only time will tell.

The post Finland Has The EU’s Last iGaming Monopoly – What Does The Future Look Like? appeared first on iGaming.org.

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