The Finnish government is proposing to end the state-owned Veikkaus Oy's monopoly on gambling and introduce a licensing system to open up the market to competition.

The proposed new gambling act would allow companies to apply for licenses to offer betting, online slot machines, and casino games. However, lotteries, physical slot machines, and casino games would remain under Veikkaus Oy's monopoly.The Finnish government has proposed a significant overhaul of its gambling market, aiming to end the monopoly currently held by state-owned Veikkaus.

The new system would be introduced in stages, with license applications opening in 2026 and licensed gambling operations starting in 2027. Veikkaus Oy's monopoly would remain in place until the end of 2026.

From the press release:

At present, Veikkaus Oy has a monopoly on the provision of gambling games in Finland. A significant portion of online gambling nonetheless takes place outside the monopoly system. Enterprises outside the system offer online gambling games that are not covered by national regulation or supervision by the authorities.

Some gambling games to be opened to competition
The proposed act would lay down provisions on licensed gambling and its supervision in Finland. The licensing system refers to a model where gambling enterprises could apply to the Finnish Supervisory Agency for a license to run gambling games in Finland. The aim here, as laid out in the Government Programme, is to prevent and reduce gambling-related harm and to increase the channeling of demand to a regulated gambling system.

Gambling games could be run with an exclusive license or a gambling game license. The supply of the game software used in gambling games would moreover be subject to a game software license. License holders would be required to pay an annual supervision fee to the supervisory authority.

Lotteries, pools, totalisator betting, physical slot machines, and casino games would remain subject to an exclusive licence. In practice, this would give Veikkaus a monopoly in games such as lottery games and scratch cards.
Read more here: https://www.gpwa.org/article/finland...onopoly-256950