Veikkaus embraces the proposal to liberalize Finland’s gambling market

Veikkaus has expressed its support for a government study aimed at opening up Finland’s gambling market. The company is eager to see the introduction of a licensed gambling market expedited, rather than delayed.

Veikkaus, the state-controlled monopoly gambling operator, has embraced a government study that has recommended against maintaining the current regime in Finland. The study conducted a comparison of Finland’s gambling monopoly with systems in other European markets and concluded that the current regime is not a recommended option. Veikkaus supports the findings of the study and welcomes the potential changes in the gambling market landscape in Finland.

The study also highlighted that approximately 50% of gambling activities in Finland occur on unlicensed websites. In comparison to other countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and France, the report presented two alternative options for the gambling system in Finland.

One of the alternatives proposed in the study is to adopt a similar approach to Norway, where the national gambling regulator, Lottstift, is granted increased authority to prevent access to unlicensed gambling through measures such as blocking domain name servers and imposing advertising bans. This approach would empower the Finnish gambling regulator to take more proactive measures to combat unlicensed gambling activities, similar to the recent developments in Norway set to take effect from January 2024.

The second alternative proposed in the study is to follow the approach taken by most other European countries, which is to establish a competitive and regulated gambling market by granting licenses to operators other than Veikkaus. The report suggests that this approach could “significantly improve” the channeling of gambling activities towards legal and regulated options. This would involve creating a more open and competitive market that allows for multiple licensed operators to offer gambling services, promoting a safer and more transparent gambling environment in Finland.

The study acknowledged that accurately predicting the potential impact of introducing a licensed system on the prevalence of gambling problems is challenging. However, it noted that existing research literature did not find any significant differences in the amount of gambling activity or the prevalence of gambling-related harms between monopoly-based and licensed gambling markets. While it may be difficult to accurately assess the exact effects of a license system, the study highlighted that evidence from other markets did not indicate a substantial difference in terms of gambling-related issues between the two approaches.

Veikkaus CEO, Olli Sarekoski, has welcomed the study and expressed openness to the idea of a licensed gambling market in order to improve channelization rates. Sarekoski noted that the report is balanced and highlighted the importance of the gaming margin falling within the range of 500 – 550 million, as previously presented based on H2 Gambling Capital’s information.

From Veikkaus’ perspective, if a transition to a licensed system is indeed the direction of the system change, Sarekoski stated that it would be preferable for the change to happen expeditiously rather than slowly. The Finnish government has also expressed support for ending the state-controlled gambling monopoly in Finland, signaling potential changes on the horizon.