The legislation overhauling Finland’s gambling industry has been approved by the country’s parliament by an overwhelming majority, after proposed amendments made by opposition MPs were shut down a few days ago.

A grand total of 158 Finnish MPs approved the legislation during its second reading, with just eight against. Proposed by the government earlier this year, the bill will replace the monopoly held by the state-owned Veikkaus Oy with a multi-licence system.

Veikkaus will remain the operator of land-based gaming and the National Lottery, with the multi-licence system covering online betting and gaming. Prior to this morning’s vote, representatives from different political parties aired their views in the chamber yesterday afternoon.

Juha Hänninen, a member of the National Coalition party, one of the four governing parties, and of the Administration Committee, which made adjustments to the legislation prior to the second reading, made the case that he and his colleagues had “made the necessary additions to the proposal, and the whole thing is now good at this moment”.

“The current gambling system, in which Veikkaus has exclusive rights, no longer reflects reality,” he said. “A significant part of gambling takes place outside our current system, online and on the platforms of foreign operators.

“No licence fees or taxes are paid to Finland for these games. These operators have no responsibility for the gambling problems of Finns. The gambling system is in dire need of reform.

“We have now discussed the government’s proposal for a new gambling act in committee. The implementation of gambling will now be clearly linked to a system subject to licensing. Gaming companies are required to have a license, and gambling requires identification.”

With the legislation now approved, Finland’s multi-licence regime is set to set up shop on 1 July 2027. The market will be overseen by the newly created Licensing and Supervision Agency, taking over from the National Police Board (NPB) as gaming regulator. The application window for new licences opens on 1 March 2026.

Finnish overhaul gets broad green light

The 94% approval rate during the bill’s second reading is reflective of the broad political support the legislation has received since its initial inception, having been launched to parliament back in March – though legislative discussion around it has been ongoing for at least two years.

Notably, opposition members of parliament voted in favour during this morning’s reading, despite the opposition party’s proposed amendments to the bill, made by members of the aforementioned Administration Committee.

Members of The Greens and the Left Alliance proposed that the bill ban bonuses, welcome incentives, TV and radio advertising, marketing and sponsorship in sports, and marketing in public events.

The Committee also recommended that health warnings be included in gambling marketing, similar to with tobacco products, that the gambling tax rate be set at 25.5%, and the age limit at 20.

However, all opposition amendments were ultimately rejected by the rest of Finland’s parliament, although the launch date for the multi-licence market has still been pushed back from January 2027 to July 2027.

Aino-Kaisa Pekonen, member of the Left Alliance and former Minister for Health and Social Affairs, told fellow MPs during yesterday’s reading that while she believes gambling reform is necessary, the current reforms need a rethink. She particularly argued against the advertising amendments rejected a couple of days previously.

“Advertising normalises and makes gambling a commonplace. It also increases a positive attitude towards gambling and encourages gambling,” she said, with similar sentiment shared by Green MPs like Tiina Elo.

Pekonen continued: “This increases the consumption of gambling and the harms it causes. Advertising increases gambling and risk-taking among gambling addicts. It makes it more difficult to abstain from gambling and causes relapses.”

Despite these protestations, the bill passed earlier today with a strong majority. As expected, members of the governing Finns, National Coalition, RKP and KD parties voted in favour, but so did a reasonable number of opposition MPs.

Perhaps the Greens and Left Coalition are biding their time. While their initial ambitions around advertising have been rejected, the MPs may see the advantages of regulating the gambling market as outweighing the negatives for now, but plan to return advertising restrictions to the agenda at a later date, as seen in countries like the Netherlands.

Industry welcomes change

As expected, the landslide approval of the Gambling Reform Bill has been broadly welcomed by interested industry stakeholders, including Veikkaus itself. The state-owned gambling firm has been vocally in favour of abolishing its own monopoly for some time.

This is due to channelisation rates – the company has noticed that it is struggling to compete with the more diverse offshore unregulated market, and as a result channelisation rates are falling far below the government’s ideal target of 90%.

Veikkaus is of the view that regulating a multi-licence market is the only way the Finnish government can take control of gambling, in doing so guaranteeing regulated player protections for customers – while also of course bringing in much more tax revenue.

“We have been waiting for a model that improves the possibilities of channeling gambling into a licensed offering,” said Veikkaus Deputy CEO Velipekka Nummikoski.

“Veikkaus has not had a real monopoly on gambling in Finland for a long time. According to various estimates, up to 600–900 million euros are gambled outside the official system annually.”

Other reactions have come in on LinkedIn. Antti Koivula, Chief Compliance Officer at Hippos ATG, a joint venture between Sweden’s ATG and Finland’s equestrian sports agency Hippos, celebrated the landslide vote as well as a personal win.

“The Finnish Parliament has approved the Gambling Reform Bill by a landslide,” he wrote. “The government naturally voted for its own proposal, but notably a clear majority of the opposition did the same, even though only a simple majority was required. For anyone closely following the process, this outcome was entirely expected.

“As a lighter side note, we even placed a friendly bet on the vote with my buddy Jaakko Soininen. I set the approval line at 80 percent, excluding absentees and empty votes. He took the under, leaving me with the over. Final result: 94,6 percent. Easy!”

Meanwhile, Finnplay, a Helsinki-based gaming compliance tech firm, lauded the vote as a ‘the beginning of a major transformation’ for the country’. The company further praised Finland as offering a ‘unique and highly attractive market’.

In a blog post on Finnplay’s website, Jari Vähänen, Partner at the Finnish Gambling Consultants Oy, said: “Finns spend more money on gambling per capita than most countries. I don’t know Finland’s exact ranking on that statistic at the moment, but we have been among the top three countries and are likely still in the top 10.

“So, the market is attractive to gambling companies. The new legislation enables a wide range of products to be sold through digital channels, and betting products can also be sold in retail channels.

“In addition, marketing opportunities are strong, particularly in mass media, where brand-level advertising can be conducted relatively freely. The same applies to sponsorship.”

However, the reservations held by The Greens and the Left Alliance show that Finnish iGaming’s political situation is far from stable just yet and there is every chance that further reforms could occur post-market launch..