Finland Online Casino Guide

HOME Casinos by Countries Finland Online Casino Guide

Legal casino gambling age in Finland

Gambling Industry Overview in Finland

The following approaches will be presented

Gambling legislation in Finland
Gambling authorities in Finland
Online casinos in Finland
and more

If you prefer to read this article in Finnish click here.

Flag of Finland Gambling activities are legal in Finland, but the country's legislation on the matter is considered relatively complex. The state runs a monopoly in a structure that was usually described as “3+1”. The main gambling and gaming market used to be divided between three largely state-owned and controlled entities, Fintoto Oy, RAY, and Oy Veikkaus AB. Today all of these works under one umbrella company, Veikkaus.

All forms of gambling are found very attractive by the Finnish citizens, who have made betting one of the most popular pastimes in the country.

Overview

Nevertheless, betting operations are legal on the territory of the country, while both gambling and lotteries are illegal when operated for private purposes. The licenses of land-based and web-based operators are provided by the Government. A specific part of the country's legislation on the matter is the fact that only one license at a time is valid for each kind of gambling and gaming activities.

As explained earlier, there are three organizations that operate in a certain segment of the country's market.

Each of the state-controlled bodies runs and manages a separate aspect of gambling. For example, table games and slot machines on the territory of Finland are overseen by RAY, while the national lottery and sports betting are managed by Oy Veikkaus AB. The last operator, Fintoto Oy, currently controls horse race betting activities in the country.

RAY provides a variety of brick-and-mortar gambling games across the country. It is granted with the monopoly over land-based casinos, including slot machines, traditional casino games, and table games in Finland.

Oy Veikkaus AB has been licensed to monitor and manage instant win games, as well as sports betting and the national lottery.

Fintoto Oy owns the responsibilities related to parimutuel horse racing activities.

Top Rated Online Casinos for Finland

Vegas Casino Online

300% up to

$3,000

Visit Read Review

Liberty Slots Casino

100% up to

$259

Visit Read Review

Sun Palace Casino

250% up to

$1,250

Visit Read Review

Old Havana Casino

200% up to

$2,000

Visit Read Review

Slots Plus

400% up to

$500

Visit Read Review

Las Vegas USA Casino

400% up to

$500

Visit Read Review

Vegas Casino Online

300% up to

$3,000

Visit Read Review

Liberty Slots Casino

100% up to

$259

Visit Read Review

Sun Palace Casino

250% up to

$1,250

Visit Read Review

Old Havana Casino

200% up to

$2,000

Visit Read Review

Slots Plus

400% up to

$500

Visit Read Review

Las Vegas USA Casino

400% up to

$500

Visit Read Review

However, no jurisdiction is held by these three companies over the Åland Islands and gambling operations there. All such activities are supervised by PAF, a fourth organization that oversees all kinds of gambling operations in the province. The latter has an autonomous statute, which is the reason why the gaming activities there are subjected to a separate regulator.

Relevant Legislation

ray ray The main law that sets up rules concerning money games is the Lottery Act 491/65. The Act came into force on January 1st, 1966, and has remained as the basic gambling regulation law ever since. The gaming system in the country can be described as a licensing system based on exclusivity.

The Act gives some major definitions and descriptions. For instance, it classifies slot machines, bingo, and casinos that offer prizes of money and commodities as lotteries.

Money gambling operations play an important part when it comes to funding charity activities. This process is also regulated by the Lottery Act, which dictates the way that the proceeds of the three major gaming operators must be used.

The Lottery Act of Finland went a long way after a law reform that has been on the agenda since 1993. Seven years later the proposed changes, based on the current “3+1” monopoly system, were introduced to the country's Parliament. The alterations in the Finnish gambling legislation officially happened in 2002.

fintoto fintoto According to the Lottery Act, different licenses are issued for different activities, such as operating money lotteries, betting, and pools, for managing slot machines, casino games, and other casino activities. Another license is given to operators that run totalisator betting. In addition, only one license can be granted for each of these activities at a time.

The country has, in fact, created a regulated monopoly this way. It has focused its efforts on protecting everyone engaged in gaming activities, as well as preventing gambling for becoming a means related to any criminal activities and reducing its influence on individuals. This is also one of the reasons why no other than these three state-run operators is allowed to offer gaming services on the territory of the country.

The licenses provided by the authorities may be issued for a maximum of half a decade at a time. They are granted to operators by the country's Government, which also has the right to cancel the provided licenses.

Controversial Legislation

Lately, there has been a lot of controversies regarding the state-run monopoly of Veikkaus. On one hand, the monopoly produces a lot of money for the state, which is then used for social purposes (arts, charities and so forth), but on the other hand, Finnish people have some of the heaviest gambling problems in the world.

And the above is an issue because the official reason is decreasing gambling problems. Some see the whole monopoly just a way to levy extra taxes on the population of Finland. And it is true that the gambling seems to cause problems for exactly those segments of the population that the whole monopoly was set up to help. In many ways, though the whole system is justified by noble causes, it really is just a blast from the past, from an era when nations used to take more direct action with economies. For the government, it’s an extra billion USD per year. A number that keeps on growing, despite the goal of decreasing gambling.

And that’s not to even mention the suspiciously political nominations when it comes to the management and board of directors of Veikkaus. Luckily, such corruption has been done away in recent years. But it’s no secret that in the past the post was a sort of a golden handshake for politicians about to retire.

One of the reasons for gambling problems are slots. These can be found in most supermarkets, which might feel a bit strange for anyone outside Finland. It’s not a very common setup.

Likewise, similar lottery products and scratch cards are widely available. Is this really a better solution than dedicated gaming shops? A case could be made that this sort of setup leads to more casual and spontaneous gambling, whereas dedicated land-based casinos, as well as online casinos, offer an experience that is not just based on impulse shopping.

Online Gambling

Internet Gambling in Finland To date, online gambling activities in Finland are restricted to state-owned and controlled monopoly operators. The country legalized web-based casino and gaming operations back in 1996 with the authorization of Veikkaus to provide its land-based games on the Internet as well.

PAF, which currently controls the online gambling in the province of the Åland Islands, was the first operator in the country that offered a full list of online casino and bingo games in its own website in 2007. This, however, became the reason for conflict between RAY and PAF, due to the fact that RAY believed the other operator infringed on its monopoly.

RAY launched its own casino website in 2010 after acknowledging the right of PAF to regulate Internet gambling in the region. The other two state-licensed bodies, Fintoto and Veikkaus, also obtained permission to offer their gambling services via websites.

Currently, the website that is run by PAF is accessible to all citizens of the country.

Finland has recently been put under a lot of pressure by the European Union because of the state monopoly imposed over the gambling operations in the country. The European Union insisted on the country to allow companies other than the “3+1”, which were entitled with these rights and responsibilities, to offer gaming services in Finland, both in land-based and web-based casinos.

The country still insists on its claim that the gambling operations there are charitable, but the European Union disagrees on the matter. Despite all the pressure, Finland still does not allow any operator to set foot on its gambling market.

As mentioned above, websites of outlanders that offer gambling activities in the country are currently forbidden and proclaimed as illegal. Still, Finnish players are accepted on foreign websites. In addition, there are no legal mechanisms in order to block foreign websites as a whole or any financial transactions made to and from those websites.

Finland does not have a criminal code that proclaims betting with an unlicensed operator is illegal. This basically means that local citizens are free to place bets literally on any foreign website that accepts a Finnish player.

2023 Update

However, there seems to be hope for the Finnish online gambling market. According to the latest information, this European country is getting closer to opening its own market and introducing a licensing system.

What happened?

According to statistics, Finland loses significant sums of money every year due to spending outside the monopoly system. In the interest of returning money to the state reserves, Finland is considering the introduction of a hybrid system, similar to Sweden's, which would represent a mix of license and monopoly.

Specifically, the Finnish government plans to include online casinos and betting in its market, with the condition that all rights are held by Veikkaus Oy, regardless of who provides the service. Veikkaus will be split into two distinct legal organizations, one functioning in the market for legalized gaming and the other in the monopoly services sector.

In addition to saving money within the outline of their state, the introduction of such a system would also have a positive effect on the behavior of active gamblers. The top priority is to protect players from online gambling harm. Taking into account that, at the moment, Finns are allowed to gamble exclusively outside the country, monitoring the behavior of the players is a demanding task. If the proposed hybrid system is implemented, the state will be able to more easily monitor the activities of gamblers and take preventive measures, if necessary.

The situation is still uncertain…

Finland cannot confirm with certainty the date when the first changes in online gambling regulations would begin to be implemented. The priority is to prepare a legislative proposal; in the Finnish media, it is mentioned that this could happen by the end of 2023.

In the meantime, Finns have a handful of open possibilities when it comes to gambling outside the country. There are a number of attractive opportunities for online gambling on other markets, with which active players can pass the time while waiting for things to change within Finland.

Gambling abroad for Finns

Though there are laws and restrictions, the thing of note is that these only apply in Finland. Thanks to the European Union, the legislation of Finland only applies to Finland. Thus, the Finnish government cannot restrict, for example, the Maltese government from offering licenses that allow customers to play from all countries in the union.

What the government can do is stop marketing in Finland. This is yet one more of those controversies, as the state monopoly at times stumbles from one mistake to the next when their own ads promote unreasonable gambling…in a situation where they are supposed to do the exact opposite.

This again, of course, only applies to companies that operate in or from Finland. The Finnish government cannot control the internet, nor does its laws extend beyond the borders. For example, our site is free to advertise casinos for Finnish players, as long as we don’t have our servers in Finland. This situation has also resulted in all sorts of casino ads being run on multinational TV-channels, which is the majority of TV-channels available.

This setup is not entirely without its positive sides. The national Finnish law stipulates no tax on any sort of gambling wins. When you combine this with the EU and its laws of fair practices, it means that as long as you play anywhere in the EU area, you don’t need to pay taxes for any of the wins you land.

Finnish Casinos and Producers

If you’re looking for a Finnish casino, you’re pretty much limited to the PAF we mentioned earlier. The national provider, Veikkaus, doesn’t serve foreign markets. The situation with PAF is a bit more interesting than with Veikkaus, as they seem to be more of a traditional casino operator, even though their money goes to funding public interest projects too.

Check out our PAF casino review to see if you might want to take a look at what the company has to offer.

When it comes to game producers, well here you see the effects of monopolies. There really aren’t any. There can’t be because they are so limited by the law. Compare this to the Western neighbour of Finland, Sweden, who is home to some of the biggest online gaming companies in the world. The national operator does provide some unique games, but most of their selection comes from the same providers as with other online casinos…only, Veikkaus tends to offer way worse RTPs.

What’s the solution then? Well, there are more than enough online casinos aimed at Finnish players. Staffed by Finnish people, offering their favourite games, Finnish customer service, sites and much more. The only reason you wouldn’t call these casinos Finnish is that they are not in Finland. They are still within the EU, guaranteeing safety and security.

Then there are the countless other casinos, all available to Finnish players. No wonder that Finnish casino players have been moving to internet gambling in record numbers. This not only gives you the latest casino experience, but also vastly bigger chances at enjoying a greater number of different games and game types. If you’re a fan of live casino or poker, the difference between Finnish national provider and international providers is like day and night.

Of course, the collection of slots likewise go from hundreds to thousands upon thousands. The best of all, international online casinos offer considerable bonuses and promotions, something Veikkaus doesn’t do. For betting fans, and we know there are plenty in Finland, the market is likewise expanded into completely new heights. Quite a few offer plenty of Finnish markets as well.

Online Casinos that Welcome Players from Finland

Vegas Casino Online

No Deposit Bonus

$ 20

No Deposit Bonus

$ 20

Finland Online Casino Guide

Gambling Industry Overview in Finland

The following approaches will be presented

Overview

Top Rated Online Casinos for Finland

Relevant Legislation

Controversial Legislation

Online Gambling

2023 Update

What happened?

Gambling abroad for Finns

Finnish Casinos and Producers

Online Casinos that Welcome Players from Finland

On This Page

Related News

About Us

Useful Links

Subscribe Now!

You have successfully subscribed!