Finland is the last EU country to end an online gambling monopoly — and the transition is further along than most English-language coverage suggests. License applications have been open since 1 March 2026. Roughly fifty operators have already filed. If your Finland plan starts “when the market opens,” you are eighteen months behind the operators building Helsinki teams today.
This briefing is the verified state of play as of Q3 2026, from Finnish primary sources.
The timeline that matters
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 16 Dec 2025 | Parliament adopts the new Gambling Act (HE 16/2025 vp; committee report HaVM 28/2025 vp), 158–9 |
| 16 Jan 2026 | Presidential confirmation (Act 10/2026) |
| 1 Mar 2026 | License applications open at the National Police Board (Poliisihallitus). Processing target: 3–6 months |
| 30 Jun 2027 | Veikkaus’s exclusivity over online casino, betting and online slots ends |
| 1 Jul 2027 | Licensed market opens. Supervision transfers from the Police Board to the Finnish Supervisory Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto, “Luova”) |
| 1 Jul 2027 | B2B software-supplier license applications open |
| 1 Jul 2028 | Licensed operators may only use licensed-supplier software |
Note the slippage already baked in: the market opening moved from an earlier 1 January 2027 target to 1 July 2027, largely because the new regulator did not yet have the staff to be operational. Timelines in this reform move — that is the point of tracking it.
Who grants your license (and the mistake everyone makes)
An operator applying now applies to the National Police Board — not Luova. The Supervisory Agency has existed since January 2026 but does not hold the gambling brief until 1 July 2027, the same day the market opens. Enforcement teeth from day one: administrative fines of €1,000–100,000 and penalty payments up to 4% of prior-year turnover (capped at €5M).
Three license types
- Gambling License (rahapelitoimilupa) — B2C: fixed/variable-odds betting, virtual betting, online casino, online slots, online money bingo. Five-year term.
- Gambling Software License (peliohjelmistotoimilupa) — B2B suppliers. Applications from 1 July 2027; mandatory from 1 July 2028.
- Exclusive License — Veikkaus only: lotteries, scratch cards, physical slot machines and land-based casino. Ten-year term.
Non-EEA applicants must appoint an EEA-established representative. Applications are submitted in Finnish or Swedish.
The money
- Application fee: €29,000, non-refundable, win or lose.
- Annual supervisory fee: €4,000–434,000, scaled to gaming revenue. Software licensees pay a flat €1,500/year.
- Gambling tax: flat 22% of GGR — up from 12%, uniform across Veikkaus and licensed entrants, from 1 July 2027.
- Player winnings from Finnish-licensed games are tax-free.
Marketing: the strictest regime in Europe
The Act enumerates an exhaustive list of permitted channels — your own website, non-interactive social media, TV, radio, print, sponsorship, and narrowly-scoped search ads. Everything else is prohibited. In practice:
- Affiliate marketing and influencer/streamer marketing are banned outright — not restricted, banned.
- Direct marketing requires prior opt-in consent.
- Bonuses are capped and standardized: no public welcome bonuses, maximum 5× wagering requirements, identical terms for all customers — no VIP tiers.
- Supervisory guidance on the vaguer provisions (“moderate” marketing) is still being written. This is where enforcement risk lives in 2027–2028.
The market being fought over
Finland’s total gambling GGR is roughly €1.9B, with channelisation around 50% — an estimated €600–900M per year currently flows to offshore operators. That is the pool the reform is designed to capture, and the prize the ~50 applicants are pursuing. Veikkaus’s own CEO expects 40–60 licensed operators active by mid-2027. Confirmed or publicly reported entrants include FDJ United/Kindred (publicly targeting top-3, building a Helsinki team), Entain, Flutter, LeoVegas, Betsson and Paf.
Veikkaus itself is splitting: one entity retains the exclusive segment, another will compete in the open market — armed with a new OpenBet sportsbook and, for the first time, permission to offer bonuses.
What changes next (and why you’ll want to be tracking it)
Between now and July 2027: license grants begin landing (3–6 month processing from a March 2026 start means decisions are due now), the supervisory-fee and marketing-guidance details firm up, and the Veikkaus split takes its final legal shape. Most of the substance appears first in Finnish — ministry memos, committee papers, trade press — weeks before it reaches English coverage.
That gap is what we cover. Subscribe to the free briefing → — and when you need the full picture, the Finland Market Entry Monitor tracks applications, regulatory movement and Veikkaus’s defensive play, in English, from the primary sources.