The dates, corrected
A lot of what is published about Finland still carries the timeline from the 2025 draft. The Act as passed works like this. Parliament adopted the Gambling Act on 16 December 2025 by 158 votes; the President confirmed it on 16 January 2026 and it is numbered 10/2026. The licensing chapters entered into force on 1 March 2026 and the National Police Board began accepting applications that day. Licensed operations may start on 1 July 2027, when the rest of the Act and the new regulator, the Finnish Supervisory Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto), take over. From 1 July 2028 a B2C licensee may only use gambling software from a holder of a Finnish gambling software licence, for which applications open on 1 July 2027.
Veikkaus keeps an exclusive ten-year licence for lotteries, scratch cards and land-based slots and casino games, and is splitting into a licensed betting and iCasino subsidiary and a monopoly lottery subsidiary. Online betting, casino, slots and money bingo are open to any number of licensees on five-year terms.
Money
| Item | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | €29,000, non-refundable | Ministry of the Interior decree on police charges, effective 1 March 2026 |
| Licence amendment | €1,120 | same decree |
| Annual supervision fee | €4,000 at GGR under €100,000, rising by tier to €434,000 at GGR of €50 million or more | Act; intermediate bands to be confirmed with the Agency |
| Gambling tax | 22% of GGR (stakes minus winnings) | Act; Hannes Snellman tax briefing, 1 July 2026 |
| Corporate income tax | 20% | PwC Tax Summaries, September 2026 |
| B2B software licence fee | not yet published | due before 1 July 2027 |
H2 Gambling Capital puts total Finnish GGR for 2026 at around €1.9 billion, 81% of it online. Veikkaus reported €936.3 million revenue for 2025 and estimates €600 million to €900 million a year currently played with offshore operators. That offshore share is the prize; industry estimates expect 40 to 50 licensees to compete for it on day one.
Product rules that will break a standard build
- No acquisition bonuses. Welcome bonuses, deposit bonuses, free play and loyalty or VIP schemes are prohibited. Only "modest" retention bonuses to existing customers are allowed, with a wagering requirement capped at 5×.
- No affiliates. Affiliate marketing is prohibited outright, as are influencer marketing and telephone direct marketing. Own sites, TV, radio, print and search advertising are permitted, and all marketing must be "moderate".
- Finnish residents only, verified with strong electronic identification at registration, 18+, with geo-blocking of non-residents. Personal deposit limits must be set before play starts.
- No crypto. Cryptocurrency deposits are prohibited.
- Central self-exclusion register across all licensees; an indefinite exclusion lasts at least a year and takes three months' notice to lift.
- Certified systems. Gaming systems and RNGs are assessed by an approved third-party body before launch.
- Enforcement against the unlicensed. Payment blocking of blacklisted operators continues from 2023; the Act adds DNS blocking, removal of .fi domains and content-removal orders. Penalty payments of up to 4% of turnover capped at €5 million are reported by one source and not yet confirmed at ours.
The bonus and affiliate rules together remove the two acquisition channels most operators' CRM and marketing stacks are built around. A platform that cannot switch off deposit bonuses per market, enforce a 5× cap and run a retention programme without a VIP tier will fail the technical review, not the legal one.
Who can apply and how long it takes
Any natural or legal person; an applicant from outside the EEA must appoint an EEA representative who passes the fit-and-proper test. The application is filed in Finnish or Swedish. Disqualifiers are the usual ones: criminal convictions in the last five years (three for fines), bankruptcy, tax or enforcement defaults, a business prohibition, a previous licence revocation or a sanctions listing. VAT registration is required within three months of starting operations, not at application.
The National Police Board's stated target is about six months of processing; law firms say three to six. Fifty B2C applications had been received by 10 June 2026, up from 24 at the end of March, most from Malta-based groups. None had been granted as of that date because none can take effect before 1 July 2027. Filing in the fourth quarter of 2026 still leaves room to be live on opening day; filing in 2027 probably does not.
What we supply
A Finland-ready configuration of our turnkey casino and sportsbook: strong-ID onboarding, resident-only geo-fencing, mandatory limit-setting before first play, the bonus engine locked to retention-only with the 5× cap, self-exclusion register integration, and reporting in the format the supervision fee tiers require. We prepare the technical annexes for the B2C application now and the B2B software licence application when the window opens on 1 July 2027, because from July 2028 an unlicensed platform is a licence breach for the operator.
Questions operators ask
Can I apply from Malta or Estonia without a Finnish company?
Yes. EEA companies apply directly; only non-EEA applicants need an EEA representative. The application language is Finnish or Swedish, so budget for legal translation.
Is there a cap on the number of licences?
No. The Act sets no numerical cap. Competition is the constraint, not the regulator.
What happens to my current Finnish players before July 2027?
Nothing changes legally until the Act takes full effect, but payment blocking against blacklisted operators has run since 2023 and the Police Board is on record about enforcement priorities. Operators applying for a licence generally stop actively marketing to Finland while the application is pending.
Sources
- Gambling Act 10/2026 (Rahapelilaki); Government bill HE 16/2025; Ministry of the Interior project page on the gambling reform; National Police Board page on licences under the Gambling Act
- Borenius, Finland's Gambling Act reform, 28 May 2026; Krogerus, quick guide to the new licence regime, 20 January 2026; Waselius, 19 December 2025; Hannes Snellman, Parts III (11 September 2025) and V (1 July 2026); Nordia Law, 3 December 2025; DLA Piper Finland, 14 November 2025
- Veikkaus Group releases, 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026; iGaming Business, 2 April 2026 (H2GC estimates, applications); G3 Newswire, 10 June 2026 (50 applications, processing target)
- PwC Tax Summaries, Finland, reviewed 9 September 2026; lvv.fi agency notice, January 2026