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Gambling is extremely popular in Finland. For close to 80 years, the Finns have enjoyed taking part in all sorts of lucky games, including slots, lotto, keno, scratchcards and more. Typically, these games have been played under the Finnish state-run operator Veikkaus, which still has the monopoly on gambling in Finland.
In this article, we will take a look at some of the most recent developments in the Finnish gambling system. Included is some information on the potential future of fast banking methods such as Zimpler, Brite and Trustly, which have recently all become ultra-popular.
For the longest time, the Finnish state used to have a stranglehold on Finnish gambling. This all started to change at the start of the new millennium when there was an influx of online casinos coming into the market. Due to some special privileges from the EU, however, Finland has been able to maintain its monopoly on gambling inside of its borders to this day.
Because of the state-run monopoly, no online casino is allowed to market its services to Finland. However, this does not prevent fully legal and licensed casinos from accepting Finnish citizens as their online customers.
Very early on, online casinos were able to infiltrate the Finnish markets with their massive casino bonuses and huge game selections. Perhaps even more importantly, Finnish people were delighted by how much higher the RTPs (return to player) were online. In essence, winning money online was a lot easier than it was in Finnish supermarkets and gas stations riddled with slot machines.
In hindsight, it is no wonder that foreign online casinos were quick to achieve such a huge share of the gambling market in such a short period of time.
At first, Finnish politicians did not really talk a lot about foreign online casinos overtaking the market. Instead, Veikkaus had to increase its marketing to make sure that customers would still keep some of their money to play offline as well. This has actually even led to Veikkaus overstepping its authority by neglecting its role as a responsible gambling operator. As a consequence, the National Police Board of Finland which oversees the gambling market has had to issue a few warnings to Veikkaus for too aggressive marketing.
As Veikkaus’s performance continued to dwindle down, the politicians had to finally take notice. A few years ago, many of those in charge became adamant that something needed to be done. For them, this something was trying to make it technically impossible for Finnish players to play online.
At one point, there was also talk of severing the connection of Finnish banks to foreign online casinos. This would have meant that no popular Zimpler casino, or any other pay n play casino for that matter, could function on the market anymore. Instead, those wanting to play online would have to do so by using e-wallets or other less popular payment methods that are not connected to Finnish banks.
For some time, it looked like the days of people being able to use their bank accounts to deposit money at casinos were over. Since then, however, things have taken another drastic turn.
In August 2022, after years of struggling, state-run Veikkaus finally came out in favor of getting rid of its own monopoly. The reasoning of the company was that it was time to bring foreign online casinos under the same umbrella of regulation. Thus far, foreign casinos had been allowed to run rampant, whereas Veikkaus had had to follow strict regulations. According to Veikkaus, it would be easier for it to compete if everyone was on a level playing field.
It would not be long after this that the newly chosen Finnish parliament would announce that the monopoly was indeed going to end. Currently, those in charge are trying to determine the new ground rules for the upcoming Finnish licensing system. With new changes upcoming, Veikkaus has its gameplan ready and is expecting to decrease its number of locations with corresponding job losses on the horizon.
While there was indeed a short period of time when the future of Zimpler casinos was hanging in the balance, it seems like this time could be over now. Once the Finnish government finally ends up opening the market for competition, there should not be any reason to forbid using fast and secure banking methods.
It remains to be seen what the next evolutionary step of the Finnish gambling system will look like. If the licensing system will have too much government control, some online casino companies might still choose to stay outside and continue offering their services from within an ethical gray area. As for now, the politicians really have a lot to think about!