for early access to the latest igaming videos!
and get the latest igaming news first!
Finland’s long-awaited gambling reform was supposed to be about opening the market, fixing legal gray zones, and pulling players away from offshore sites. Instead, as the bill inches closer to its final shape, political pressure is building in the opposite direction — toward tighter controls and fewer commercial freedoms.
After months of review, the Parliament’s Administration Committee has returned the Gambling Bill with several recommendations. Officially, the task was to clean up vague sections flagged by the Constitutional Committee earlier this year. In practice, the process has opened the door for opposition parties to push for one of the most restrictive advertising regimes in Europe.
And that could change the entire logic of Finland’s upcoming open licence market, currently planned for 2027.
Advertising could be cut off before the market even opens
The Greens and the Left Alliance want sweeping limits on how gambling can be promoted in the future system. Their proposals go far beyond minor adjustments.
They are calling for mandatory health warnings on gambling advertisements, similar to those required for tobacco. More significantly, they want gambling advertising removed entirely from television and radio, as well as banned from sports and public events. That would effectively shut down sports sponsorships by betting companies from day one.
There is also strong pressure to eliminate bonuses and welcome offers altogether. The opposition argues that incentives drive harmful behavior and should not exist in a regulated market.
Operators see it very differently. From their perspective, removing bonuses and visibility tools almost guarantees that unlicensed offshore sites will keep their advantage — because illegal operators will continue offering aggressive promotions while licensed companies are locked behind heavy restrictions.
The problem with “moderate” marketing
One of the biggest technical weaknesses in the original bill was its use of the term “moderate marketing” without properly defining it. The Constitutional Committee specifically warned that this kind of wording doesn’t hold up well in sweeping legal reforms.
The Administration Committee’s solution is to give the Ministry of the Interior final authority over what qualifies as acceptable marketing.
On paper, that solves the legal ambiguity. In reality, it creates a new problem: regulatory uncertainty. Operators planning market entry would be building long-term business models without knowing how narrowly the rules might be interpreted year to year.
It’s not just about ads
Beyond marketing, the revised bill reshapes several key pillars of the future system.
The proposed gambling tax rate now stands at 25.5%. That would place Finland near the higher end of European betting taxation — roughly in line with the UK from 2027 onward, higher than Brazil, but still far below countries like France where betting taxes are extreme.
The minimum gambling age is set at 20.
On compliance, the bill tightens significantly. Two-factor authentication would become mandatory at login, and a shared deposit and loss limit system would apply across all licensed operators. A player hitting their cap at one site would be restricted everywhere else too — closing a loophole that exists in several other regulated markets.
A “half-open” market by design
Finland’s reform was never meant to be a full free-for-all. The plan is to introduce private licences for online betting, while keeping the land-based casino sector and the national lottery under the control of the state monopoly.
That structure already reflects the government’s caution. The stated goal remains channelisation — moving players away from offshore platforms and into a controlled environment where taxes can be collected and protections enforced.
The irony is that even the state operator has acknowledged that it has lost ground to foreign competitors in recent years, particularly on product variety and platform development. Opening the market was supposed to fix that imbalance, not freeze it in place under stricter rules.
A political split that isn’t going away
Whether the opposition’s advertising proposals will survive the final parliamentary process is still unclear. The governing parties hold the majority, but the pressure is growing — especially as public health arguments gain traction.
What’s clear is that Finland is now caught between two competing philosophies.
One side believes strict advertising and bonus bans are essential to prevent gambling harm. The other side believes that if licensed operators can’t compete commercially, players will simply stay with unlicensed sites where no protections exist at all.
Both sides claim to be defending consumers. They just disagree on how that actually works in practice.
The 2027 market still isn’t settled
Finland’s gambling reform was once presented as a technical restructuring timed neatly for 2027. It now looks far more political, far more contested, and far less predictable.
The Administration Committee’s work has clarified some legal questions — but it has also exposed how divided lawmakers still are on the fundamentals.
For operators, the message is increasingly mixed. Finland wants a licensed market. But the question now is whether it will be a competitive one — or a tightly controlled system that struggles to pull players out of the shadows.
Source: sbcnews.co.uk
