How to get a gambling licence in Finland (opens 1 Jul 2027)

Finland is the last Nordic mainland market to hold a full gambling monopoly. Veikkaus Oy runs everything today under the Lotteries Act (Arpajaislaki 1047/2001). The Gambling Act (Rahapelilaki 10/2026) replaces the online betting and casino monopoly with a licence system, phased in across 2026 and 2027.

• Opening to competition: betting (fixed-odds, variable-odds and virtual), online casino games, online slot machines and online money bingo.
• Staying with Veikkaus Oy: lotteries and draw games, scratch cards, physical slot machines, land-based casino games and pari-mutuel horse betting.
• The National Police Board processes applications during the whole transition (1 March 2026 to 30 June 2027); the Finnish Licensing and Supervisory Authority (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto (LVV)) becomes the competent supervisor on 1 July 2027.

Laws that apply

• Rahapelilaki 10/2026 (Gambling Act), in force in full 1 July 2027
• Arpajaislaki 1047/2001 (Lotteries Act), current framework, retained for Veikkaus exclusive-right games
• Arpajaisverolaki 552/1992 (Lottery Tax Act)
• Laki rahanpesun ja terrorismin rahoittamisen estamisesta 444/2017 (AML Act) · HE 16/2025 vp (government proposal)

The Gambling Act creates three licences: a B2C gambling licence for operators, a B2B gambling software licence for suppliers, and an exclusive licence reserved for the state company Veikkaus.

• There is no statutory cap on the number of B2C gambling licences, the market is genuinely open to competition.
• Each gambling licence names the game types the operator may run, an operator adding a vertical files a licence amendment.
• From 1 July 2028 a B2C operator may only use gambling software from a licensed B2B provider, so line up a licensed supplier or hold your own software licence.

No Finnish company is required, but a company from outside the EEA needs a Finnish branch. Section 9 grants the licence to a person covered by Enterprise Act 565/2023 s. 2(1) or s. 3(1)-(2): an EEA company directly (s. 2(1)(3)), a non-EEA company only once it sets up a branch in Finland under a Patent and Registration Office permit (s. 3(1)(2)), where the applicant, its owners and its management meet the reliability and suitability conditions in s. 10. An applicant with no domicile or establishment in an EEA state must appoint an EEA-domiciled representative who meets the same conditions (s. 12). There is no merit assessment, no cap on licences and no application round: clear s. 10 and the authority must licence you.

• The application is filed in Finnish or Swedish through the National Police Board online service (post or email also accepted).
• It states identity, legal form, ownership and management structure, financial situation, business prohibitions and criminal records for the key persons.
• It attaches the chosen game types and software providers, the marketing plan, the AML plan, a customer-complaints procedure and a competition-manipulation (match-fixing) prevention procedure.

The capital-light part of Finland is the fee schedule. There is a flat application fee and an annual supervision fee that scales with gross gaming revenue (GGR). The application fee is the 2026 amount; the supervision fee applies from 1 July 2027 (s. 106(1)), in the bands set by s. 70.

• The application is examined only after the EUR 29,000 fee is paid; the fee is not refunded if the licence is refused.
• From 1 July 2027 the annual supervision fee is a fixed amount per calendar year banded on GGR (s. 70): EUR 4,000 for an operator under EUR 100,000 GGR, rising through intermediate bands to EUR 434,000 for an operator with at least EUR 50 million GGR.
• Software (B2B) licence holders pay a flat EUR 1,500 supervision fee, far below the B2C scale.

Gambling is taxed as lottery tax (arpajaisvero) under the Lottery Tax Act (Arpajaisverolaki 552/1992). From 1 July 2027 the rate is 22% of tuotto, gross gaming revenue, on games run under the exclusive right and on games offered for play in Finland under a Finnish licence alike. Section 4(1) as amended by 14/2026 sets one rate for both halves of the market. The 12% often quoted is the rate in force until that date, not a monopoly rate that survives it.

• The tax period is the calendar month; the tax is filed and paid to the Finnish Tax Administration (Vero) by the 12th day of the second month after the games were organised. No filing is needed if the monthly tax is under EUR 50.
• Finnish corporate income tax is 20%. Today Veikkaus is taxed only on income from gambling outside its exclusive right (Income Tax Act s. 21c); 15/2026 repeals that exemption from 1 July 2027 (first applied for tax year 2027), after which nothing exempts a gambling licensee.
• Player winnings from a licensed operator (and from EEA operators generally) are tax-free for the player; winnings from an unlicensed operator are taxable income and losses are not deductible.

From 1 July 2027 (s. 106(1)) the Act is built around identified play. Every player holds a registered account opened after identity verification, and one play block, notified to the authority, reaches every licensed operator.

• Minimum age is 18 (s. 24); identity is verified at registration (s. 20) and a player can play only while identified as that licensee’s registered player (s. 28): no anonymous or guest play.
• A player’s block on all registered play, made by notice to the supervisory authority (s. 29), reaches every licensed operator; a block set for an indefinite period stays in force for at least one year before it can be lifted.
• Every player sets a daily and a monthly money-transfer limit with each licensee before the first transfer; decreases apply at once, increases the next day or month (s. 30). No loss limit is in force: a government decree may set per-licensee daily, monthly and annual loss limits for electronic slots, money bingo, virtual betting and casino games, not poker (s. 32(2)).
• The platform shows the player funds, transactions and limits for at least the past year and a monthly and annual self-assessment function (s. 22(3)); a time reminder every 15 minutes is only in a draft decree of 10 June 2026. Players can also block their play at once until the end of the following day.
• Operators must continuously monitor player behaviour, document any contact made over identified or suspected gambling harm, and may not base a decision to restrict or block a player solely on automated processing.
• Detailed limit thresholds and technical parameters (stakes, spin speed, autoplay) are set by Ministry of the Interior decree, still being finalised.

From 1 July 2027 (s. 106(1)), marketing must stay moderate in volume, scope, visibility and frequency, and may run only through a closed list of permitted channels. Several common iGaming tactics are banned outright.

• Permitted channels (exhaustive, s. 51(3)): the operator website, its own social media accounts used non-interactively, television, radio, sports and public events, print and digital publications, gaming premises, and search-engine ads on operator-related keywords.
• Banned methods: affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, and free or discounted game offers (acquisition/welcome bonuses); any permitted bonus may not be personalised or segmented per player.
• No marketing may target self-excluded players, inactive players (no play in the preceding 2 years), minors or otherwise vulnerable persons.
• Content may not present gambling as a way to solve financial problems, misrepresent winning odds or normalise gambling in everyday life.
• No outdoor advertising near schools, early-education or secondary-education premises, pharmacies, healthcare facilities or substance-abuse treatment units.

The operator must guarantee the reliability of its gaming systems and comply with the Finnish AML Act as an obliged entity, alongside sports-integrity and complaints duties.

• Gaming systems, drawing devices and drawing methods must be reliable and produce genuinely random results; the operator documents this in the application.
• AML: the operator is an obliged entity under Act 444/2017. It runs customer due diligence, a risk assessment and ongoing monitoring, and reports suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit (rahanpesun selvittelykeskus).
• A competition-manipulation (match-fixing) prevention procedure and a customer-complaints procedure are mandatory parts of the licence file.
• From 1 July 2028 the gambling software behind the Finnish offering must be supplied by a holder of the B2B gambling software licence.
• From 1 July 2027 game events and account transactions are kept for five years, kept unaltered with a certificate the authority specifies and made available through its interface (s. 45). Draft regulations notified to the EU on 10 July 2026, not yet adopted, would have the operator sign the data through the authority’s OCSS signing service (game events at least every five minutes) and run a data vault the authority reads over SFTP, with delivery within two weeks.

There is no ISP or network-level blocking power anywhere in the reform package, which is widely assumed and wrong. The online tool, from 1 July 2027 (s. 106(1)), is the s. 78 removal order: the authority can order a service provider to take down content, AND order the domain-name registry or registrar to delete the domain. Payment blocking exists separately under the current regime, and the published blocklist was empty as at 24 October 2025.

• A payment-blocking regime exists under the current Lotteries Act regime, with a published policy and a machine-readable list. That list was empty as at 24 October 2025: 122 bytes, one header row and one blank row. Its columns include a blockchain-address field.
• A s. 76 prohibition can be aimed at the operator, at a trader that passes on payments or entries, and at a natural person who markets gambling for benefit. It lasts at most 12 months, is renewable, and a 30-day interim version can issue without a hearing.
• The authority can also impose an infringement fee (s. 80).
• A penalty payment can reach 4% of the previous year turnover, floor EUR 10,000, cap EUR 5,000,000, and it is imposed by the Market Court on the authority proposal, not by the authority itself. For a natural person the cap is EUR 40,000 and the floor EUR 3,000.
• A licence can be revoked for intentional continued breaches after sanctions are imposed.

The route to a live Finnish operation on 1 July 2027, in filing order. Apply from 1 March 2026 and run the platform, software and compliance tracks in parallel with the corporate dossier so a complete file clears the roughly six-month review in time.

1. 01

   Qualify an EEA company (or set up a Finnish branch)

   Establishment · EEA

   Apply through an EEA company, or set up a Finnish branch of a non-EEA company under a Patent and Registration Office permit (Enterprise Act 565/2023 s. 3(1)(2)). An applicant with no domicile or establishment in the EEA also appoints an EEA-domiciled representative who meets the s. 10 conditions (s. 12).

2. 02

   Pass the fit-and-proper and financial-standing test

   Reliability · 25% owners, board, executives

   Assemble clean-record and standing evidence for the applicant, its beneficial owners holding at least 25%, board members and executives: no imprisonment or corporate fine in 5 years, no material tax/payment defaults in 3 years, no sanctions listing, and sufficient assets and solvency.

3. 03

   Choose your verticals and the licence scope

   rahapelitoimilupa · up to 5 years

   Decide which game types the gambling licence will cover: fixed-odds/variable-odds/virtual betting, online casino, online slots and online money bingo. The licence names the permitted types; adding one later is a licence amendment (EUR 1,120).

4. 04

   Line up licensed gambling software

   peliohjelmistotoimilupa · mandatory 1 July 2028

   Contract a B2B provider that will hold the gambling software licence (applications open 1 July 2027), or take your own software licence. From 1 July 2028 the Finnish offering may run only on licensed software.

5. 05

   Build the compliant platform

   Player accounts · limits · RNG reliability

   Deploy registered accounts behind identity verification, the s. 30 money-transfer limits, the s. 22(3) play history and self-assessment view, play blocks, and reliable, random gaming systems with a testing house report and approval before games start (s. 44(2)).

6. 06

   Prepare the mandatory plans

   AML 444/2017 · marketing · complaints · integrity

   Write the AML policy and risk assessment, the marketing plan mapped to the permitted-channel list, the customer-complaints procedure and the match-fixing prevention procedure. These are required attachments.

7. 07

   Pay the EUR 29,000 fee and file with the National Police Board

   From 1 March 2026 · Finnish/Swedish

   Submit the application through the Poliisihallitus online service in Finnish or Swedish with the full dossier, and pay the EUR 29,000 fee. The file is examined only once the fee is paid.

8. 08

   Clear the review

   ~6 months · discretionary

   The National Police Board checks establishment, reliability, standing, the plans and the technical setup. Respond quickly to information requests; an incomplete file runs past the six-month target.

9. 09

   Integrate the play-block register and RG tooling

   Play blocks · s. 29 · s. 58 register

   Wire in the authority’s play-block data so a blocked person (indefinite blocks last at least one year) cannot register or play, add continuous behaviour monitoring, and keep block decisions from resting solely on automated processing.

10. 10

    Set up marketing within the permitted-channel list

    No affiliates · no influencers · no welcome bonuses

    Restrict acquisition to owned channels, brand advertising and own-keyword search. Do not run affiliate or influencer marketing or acquisition bonuses, and do not target self-excluded, inactive, underage or vulnerable people.

11. 11

    Wire up tax and monthly reporting

    Arpajaisvero 22% from 1 Jul 2027 · Vero · monthly

    Register with the Finnish Tax Administration (Vero) and file the lottery tax (22% of GGR from 1 July 2027) each calendar month by the 12th of the second following month, and account for 20% corporate income tax where the operator is taxed in Finland.

12. 12

    Go live on 1 July 2027 and run ongoing supervision

    LVV · supervision fee EUR 4,000-434,000

    Launch when Rahapelilaki 10/2026 enters into force. From 1 July 2027 the Lupa- ja valvontavirasto (LVV) supervises; pay the GGR-scaled annual supervision fee and keep AML, player-protection and marketing compliance live.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 14 Oct 2026.